Doctoral Dissertation: Designing Learning Tools – Methodological Insights

I finally finished my doctoral dissertation. The dissertation was presented for public examination on December 7th at the Aalto University School of Art and Design.

The book is available at the University Book shop.

At some point there will be free PDF, too.

In a couple of weeks I am also going to post chapters of the book to this blog.

In the Finnish tradition there are several steps to complete doctoral dissertation. At first, the manuscript is examined by two, so called, pre-examiners selected by the Research Board of the School. After this the Research Board sends your work to an opponent of their choice.

Finally there is a public defense of the thesis. The even starts with the candidate’s presentation of the work and the opponents general notes. Then starts the discussion based on the opponents questioning.

Here are the slides of my presentation:

The opponent of my work was Professor Gerhard Fischer (Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado at Boulder), the director of the Center for Lifelong Learning and Design.

During the discussion I was very nervous, although Prof. Fischer showed that he is a master of Socratic method which is — if not necessary easiest — as least fair form of questioning.

Our School’s Adjunct Professor (docent) Timo Honkela wrote a summary and a commentary of the discussion.