What is UniHow?

UniHow is a digital reflection and feedback system. The product family consists of four research-based digital tools for supporting students, teachers and academics by means of surveys and feedback.

No previous expertise in university pedagogy is required in implementing and using UniHow. All the survey questions and feedback content are already implemented in the products and based on research in university pedagogy.

The system serves on three levels:

The product operates as a digital tutor, providing the surveyee individual feedback based on their answers in the survey. This interactive tutoring mechanism encourages and improves self-evaluation within the respondent’s field of study or work.
The conductors of the survey receive structured and analysed data from the surveyees. This contributes to better methods in teaching and decision-making within the learning environment.
All data received from the survey classifies as empirical and theory-based information, and will thus be admissible and implementable e.g. as basis for further research.

Benefits:

The surveyee who is trying to better themselves in the field of their learning
The academic who is trying to come up with better teaching decisions and policies
The organisation trying to excel in and further its academic discipline. In other words, UniHow helps make the learning environment more beneficial for all participants, and thus the measurable results of this learning environment will, in the long term, improve.

UniHow is the leading quality enhancement project in the field of university pedagogy in Finland. UniHow has been developed by the experts at the Helsinki University Centre for University Teaching and Learning (HYPE), which is a leading centre in the field of university pedagogy.

The development of UniHow has been a 15-year-long process based on international and national scientific research in university pedagogy.

University pedagogy is a multidisciplinary field that investigates pedagogical activities such as learning, studying, teaching, supervision and assessment in the higher education context. Quality assessment is also an integral field of research within the university pedagogy discipline. It primarily utilises psychological, pedagogical, and social psychological knowledge, but it also integrates knowledge from other behavioural and social sciences.

The UniHow product family is constantly updated. Once a UniHow product has been purchased, the updates will be automatic.

News

Funidata develops UniHow in close co-operation with the University of Helsinki

The University of Helsinki and Funidata have worked together on the UniHow system for a long time already. In 2021, Funidata began to fully manage the system’s infrastructure and operations as well as its software development.

> Read more

Animaatio 1

UniHow – Better quality in teaching and learning

How UniHow works

1. Send the survey

Through UniHow, surveys can be sent, for example, to student groups or students participating in a specific course. Surveys in the UniHow system will be mainly constructed as Likert scale questionnaires – the respondents specify their level of agreement or disagreement on a symmetric agree-disagree scale for a series of statements. The statements have been constructed and will connect to certain theoretical dimensions emerging in the research on quality learning and teaching at the university. The written feedback is similarly developed by the experts in study psychology, student learning and university teaching.

2. Data is ready to use

The UniHow application analyses the data received from a survey and calculates the variables (individual answers in relation to the focus group etc.). This data can also be exported to further applications for a more thorough analysis. The data can be utilized, for example, in the development of education. The system can also be linked to the institution’s student information system, in which case other indicators of academic success can also be added to the data.

3. Enjoy the feedback

The UniHow application sends the surveyee individualised feedback giving them a research-based evaluation on the answers and further advice on their learning processes. The feedback varies individually based on the data received from the survey. The feedback focuses, for example, on the surveyee’s challenges regarding the studying or teaching process, and gives advice on how to examine these processes. Through the feedback, both the surveyees and the conductors of the survey receive valuable information on the studying and teaching processes and can further develop the quality of teaching and learning.

UniHow helps make the learning environment more valuable and rewarding for all participants.

HowULearn

HowULearn provides information regarding students’ engagement, well-being and experiences on the teaching and learning environment in a study programme.

HowUStudy

HowUStudy can be used as a replacement for traditional course feedback during an individual course. It is more compact than the HowULearn survey, yet, there are two alternative levels in the survey content: a more compact survey, consisting of a maximum of 10 questions, and a more diverse survey for advanced level courses. Like HowULearn, this survey also produces a more detailed feedback to the surveyees.

The data provided by HowULearn will be used as a basis for the surveys in HowUStudy. Also other existing data on learning, e.g. learning analytics and previous study results, can be utilised in a HowUStudy survey.

From feedback to digital mentoring! UniHow goes beyond traditional survey methods with a process that is multi-dimensional and interactive.

HowUTeach

HowUTeach has been developed as a self-assessment tool for scholars and teachers in the academia. The surveyees are teachers and the question themes vary from teaching methods to teaching objectives and coping with fatigue at work. Like the other UniHow products, HowUTeach provides the respondents individualised feedback and the data is admissible as basis for further research.

HowULearnPhD

Aimed at students working on their doctoral studies, HowULearnPhD operates using the same principle as other UniHow products. The survey encompasses themes from research processes to data-collecting processes and studying fatigue providing the respondents individual feedback.

The product development was based on initiatives from different faculties instead of being a project governed from the administration level. UniHow emerged from the need of having a practical tool for tutoring and feedback.

Background

This project began in 2005 and it is a result of the cooperation between the experts in the field of university pedagogy working at the University of Helsinki. The work was coordinated by the Centre for Teaching and Learning (HYPE). UniHow first started as the tool that is now known as HowULearn, and all other products in the UniHow product family are based on the HowULearn mechanism.

Contact

For further information, please contact

Funidata Oy
customerservice(at)funidata.fi
Tel. +358 20 751 4750 (UTC+2)