Meet the CEITER team:

Prof. Tobias Ley, PhD, Professor of Learning Analytics and Educational Innovation, Head of the Centre of Excellence in Educational Innovation, Head of the CEITER project
Tobias Ley is a Professor of Learning Analytics and Educational Innovation at the School of Educational Sciences at Tallinn University. His research interest are in technology-enhanced learning and knowledge management, human computer and human information interaction, adaptive learning systems, collaborative knowledge building, and social computing. He received his PhD in Psychology and Knowledge Management from the University of Graz. Before joining TLU, he was a postdoc at the Cognitive Science Section of the University of Graz and a Deputy Division Manager at the Know-Center (Austria’s Competence Center for Knowledge Management). Tobias is the scientific coordinator of the Learning Layers project (FP7, 12 mio EUR) which develops mobile and social technology for informal workplace learning in Healthcare and Construction. Before this project, he has had leading roles in a number of other large-scale EU funded projects in the area of technology-enhanced workplace learning (FP7 MATURE, FP6 APOSDLE), as well as in about 20 projects funded from the Austrian Competence Center Program for Excellent Technologies in the areas of knowledge and competency management. He has earned an outstanding paper award (Journal of Knowledge Management) and a best interdisciplinary paper award (EC-TEL), and has served as a Programme and General Chair for the European Conference on Technology-enhanced Learning in 2013 and 2014. Since 2014, he is member of the editorial board of the IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies.

Mart Laanpere, PhD, Senior Research Fellow in Educational Technology at the School of Digital Technologies
Mart Laanpere is a Senior Researcher, in the Centre for Educational Technology, School of Digital Technologies. He holds a PhD in educational science (Tallinn University), MSc in Educational & Training Systems Design (University of Twente, the Netherlands). He has participated in a number of international R&D projects in the field of educational technology (eg. FP6 IST projects Calibrate and iCamp, FP7 projects IntelLEO, S-team and LearningLayers). His main focus in research is conceptual design and analysis of affordances of technology-enhanced learning systems and tools, modelling and assessing digital competences, socio-technical transitions and organisational change in schools. He has been coordinating several open-source educational software development projects in Tallinn University. He is teaching instructional design in the educational technology masters programme in TLU. Mart has been involved in organising several international reseach conferences: ECER (2009-2013), IFIP WG3.4 conference 2012, ICWL 2014, ICWL 2015, TEA 2016. He is a member of the steering group of the national strategy for lifelong learning 2020.

Katrin Poom-Valickis, PhD, Professor of Teacher Education at the School of Educational Sciences
Katrin Poom-Valickis is working as Associate Professor of General Didactics at the School of Educational Sciences in Tallinn University. She has 15 years of teaching experience in initial teacher education and in service learning of teachers and school leaders. Her doctoral dissertation „Novice Teachers’ Professional Development Across Their Induction Year“ was defended in 2008. Her area of research is teacher’s professional development including reflection and mentoring. She is particularly interested in the possibilities to support novice teachers’ during their first years of work. She is member of the expert group who prepared the implementation of the induction year for novice teachers in Estonia. She has been involved as a project leader and co-coordinator in several projects related to the development of Teacher Education in Estonia. She is author and co-author of more than 40 scientific papers in the field of Teacher Education and Educational Sciences. She is member of the editorial board of the Journal of Teacher Education for Sustainability.

Luis Pablo Prieto Santos, PhD, Senior Research Fellow in New Learning Environments and Technologies (Planning and Orchestration of Learning) at the School of Educational Sciences
Luis Pablo Prieto Santos is a Senior Research Fellow and former Marie Curie Fellow, currently at the School of Educational Sciences in Tallinn University (Estonia). His research deals with the design and evaluation of educational technologies for everyday use in the classroom, including distributed learning environments, tangible UIs, and their analysis using mobile eye-tracking and ubiquitous sensors. He has participated in multiple EU research projects, authored more than 50 academic publications, and co-organized multiple research and teacher professional development workshops on the topics of computer-supported collaborative learning, learning design, orchestration and learning analytics.

Paul Christian Seitlinger, PhD,  Senior Research Fellow at Cognition and Social Interaction in Learning at the School of Educational Sciences
Paul Seitlinger has received a PhD (Dr.rer.nat.) in Psychology (from Karl-Franzens University of Graz) and is now a Senior Research Fellow on Cognition and Social Interaction at School of Educational Technologies (Tallinn University). Before joining the CEITER team, he has been a postdoc at the Cognitive Science Section (Graz University of Technology) working in Austrian Science Fund projects and contributing to EU projects. His main interest lies in understanding the dynamic evolution of information goals (mental context representations) during Web-based search. This dynamic evolution is assumed to arise from an interplay between exploring the Web and reflecting upon retrieved Web resources. Applying computational accounts of cognitive search, he focus on moment-to-moment student models keeping track of evolving information goals to drive self-directed learning in terms of experiences of resonance (being and acting in a learning environment that responds coherently). Applications built upon such models (e.g., recommendation services) aim to balance between feelings of familiarity and curiosity and thus, to guide learning through Regions of Proximal Learning.

María Jesús Rodríguez-Triana, PhD, Senior Research Fellow in Learning Analytics and Educational Data Mining (Algorithms and Visualization)
María Jesús Rodríguez-Triana finished her PhD in Information and Communication Technologies at the University of Valladolid (Spain) in 2014, receiving an eMadrid award for PhDs in educational technologies. Afterwards, she joined the REACT group at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL, Switzerland) as a postdoctoral fellow. Since November 2016, she is a senior researcher at the Centre of Excellence in Educational Innovation of Tallinn University and EPFL. Her research lines address classroom orchestration, learning design, and learning analytics in ubiquitous learning environments, with special emphasis on collaborative and inquiry-based learning. Currently, she is investigating the challenges and strategies towards the adoption of learning analytics in authentic scenarios, including aspects such as ethics and privacy, visualisations and data literacy, pedagogically grounded analytics and algorithmic accountability.

Terje Väljataga, PhD, Senior Research Fellow in New Learning Environments and Technologies (Collaborative, Problem-Based and Creative Learning) at the School of Educational Sciences
Dr. Terje Väljataga is a senior research fellow at Tallinn University in the School of Educational Sciences. Her background is a teacher of natural sciences. She holds a Master degree in Geoecology, Tallinn University and in Telematics Applications in Education and Training, University of Twente; and a Doctor of Science in Technology, Tampere University of Technology. Her personal research agenda has been focused on the complex relationship of adult learners, their development, and their increasingly digital and networked personal learning environments. Following design-based research and action research approaches, she has designed and carried out a range of intervention studies that combined modern learning theories with a focus on digital re-instrumentation of teaching and studying practices together with enhancing learners’ digital competencies. Her recent research project focused on re-conceptualising the provision and use of e-textbooks in schools in combination with innovative pedagogical scenarios. Currently she is exploring modern pedagogical frameworks for designing, orchestrating and evaluating learning experiences outside of classroom settings to enhance knowledge building through creative co-construction of digital and physical artefacts. More information: http://terjevaljataga.eu/

Kairit Tammets, PhD, Senior Research Fellow in Educational Technology at the School of Digital Technologies, Head of the Centre for Educational Technology
Kairit Tammets is a Senior Researcher and the head, in the Centre for Educational Technology, School of Digital Technologies. She holds a PhD in Educational Science (Tallinn University), MSc in Interactive Media and Knowledge (Tallinn University). She has participated in a number of international R&D projects in the field of educational technology (eg. FP6 IST projects Calibrate and iCamp, FP7 projects IntelLEO, EMMA and LearningLayers) and Erasmus+ project SHEILA. Recently Kairit has been more involved in Estonian level large scale projects working together with schools and teachers – coordinating the development of digital learning resources for secondary education and developing evidence-based school development program for supporting change management. Kairit is mainly interested in designing meaningful technology-enhanced practices for the students, teachers and schools and understand the impact of such practices to different processes. Kairit is also teaching master students in several programs and supervising PhD students. She has been involved in organising several international research conferences – ICWL 2015, TEA 2016 and ECTEL 2017.

Until February 2019

Adolfo Ruiz Calleja, PhD, Senior Research Fellow in Learning Analytics and Educational Data Mining (Infrastructures) at the School of Digital Technologies
Adolfo Ruiz Calleja is a senior researcher who worked at the School of Digital Technologies in Tallinn University (TLU). He obtained his PhD in telecommunication engineering in 2013 from the University of Valladolid (Spain). His research has always been related to the management and integration of learning and educational data. Specifically, he is interested on the use of social, semantic and web technologies to support learning. He is also interested on Learning Analytics both to analyze and support learning in formal and informal contexts. His work experience includes his participation is several Spanish national and regional projects (e.g. Sofocles, EEE-Web), and other European-funded projects (e.g. Incoming, Learning Layers, Sheila). In the context of these projects he authored more than 30 academic publications. Since September 2016 – February 2019, he was a senior researcher at the Centre of Excellence in Educational Innovation of Tallinn University.

Doctoral and Master’s Students:

• Maka Eradze
• Eka Jeladze
• Kaire Kollom
• Marge Kusmin
• Kadri-Liis Kusmin
• Gerti Pishtari
• Stella Polikarpus
• Romil Rõbtšenkov
• Merike Saar
• Shashi Kant Shankar
• Õnne Uus
• Kadri Mettis
• Janika Leoste
• Pankaj Chejara
  
• Reet Kasepalu
• Linda Helene Sillat
• Marina Kurvits
• Triinu Jesmin
• Kati Aus
• Kati Vinter
• Edna Milena Sarmiento Marquez
  
• Abida Bibi
  
• Manisha Khulbe
• Maarja Hallik

Project Analysts and Coordinator:  

• Janika Leoste, Analyst in the Centre of Excellence in Educational Innovation
• Anu Tammeleht, Analyst in the Centre of Excellence in Educational Innovation
• Signe Reinumägi, Coordinator of the Centre of Excellence in Educational Innovation

Advisory Board:

• Dr. Dragan Gasevic, Professor and Chair in Learning Analytics and Informatics at Schools of Education and Informatics, University of Edinburgh, UK
• Dr. Marja-Kristiina Lerkkanen, Professor at Department of Teacher Education, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
• Dr. Stefanie Lindstaedt, Professor of Knowledge Technologies, Director of the Institute of Knowledge Technologies, Graz University of Technology, Austria
• Dr. Hannele Niemi, Professor of Education at Faculty of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland
• Dr. Jan van Tartwijk, Professor of Education and Chair of Applied Educational Science, University of Utrecht, the Netherlands
• Dr. Tatjana Kiilo, Deputy Head of the Department of Analysis in the Ministry of Education and Research, Estonia
• Timo Väliharju, e-learning advocate and entrepreneur in Finland, founder and owner of the e-learning company MediaMaisteri.fi, co-founder and CEO of the Finnish Centre for Open Systems and Solutions, co-founder of Finnish E-learning Centre and Finnish-Estonian Educational Cloud Initiative
• Dr. Barbara Wasson, Professor, Head of the Centre for the Science of Learning & Technology (SLATE), University of Bergen, Norway