The logistics lecturer teaches in collaboration with the students

Jonas Flodén is a lecturer on the School of Business, Economics and undergraduate and master’s level logistics programmes. As AI-based tools become more advanced, it is becoming increasingly difficult to assess students’ actual knowledge.

“Just as with the advent of the calculator or the internet, both teachers and students need to adapt to this new reality. I encourage the use of AI, but problems arise when the AI completes the assignment. At the same time, it is crucial that students learn to use AI properly for when they enter the working world. They need to understand how the tools are trained and how they function, so they don't end up relying on them blindly,” he says.

Jonas Flodén is interested in IT and also teaches information systems. He felt it was a problem that only dense American textbooks were available for use as course literature. He therefore wrote a more accessible, overview-style textbook, which is now used in teaching at around ten other colleges and universities. A third edition has just been published.

Fewer students are attending lectures

He sits on the Departmental Council at the Department of Educational Development and Interactive Learning (PIL) at the University of Gothenburg. One of the challenges currently being discussed there is the fact that fewer and fewer students are turning up for lectures.

"It’s an international trend. I wonder if it’s a change in attitude arising from the pandemic? Students miss out on something when they don’t participate in classroom teaching, and I want to encourage them to attend lectures. At the same time, we as teachers must develop our teaching methods and listen to the students", he says.

Taking on board student feedback

Jonas Flodén has researched the interaction between teachers and students and published an academic article on how student feedback influences teaching.

It is important for students to know that teachers appreciate feedback, listen to it, and act on it. Once they understand what works well and what doesn’t, they can adapt their teaching accordingly. This leads to better courses. In the study, I could see that the feedback had led to more interactive seminars, which is what students are asking for.

Interacting with students is important to him in many ways. A few years ago, some of his Master's students submitted a report providing such a thorough literature review of research into autonomous delivery robots that he used it as the basis for an academic article that he co-authored with them. He also conducts research into how industries and stakeholders within the transport sector interact and operate.

"The most important future issues in logistics are sustainability and managing disruptions to transport chains. War, pandemics, and trade tariffs create new challenges for these chains", Jonas Flodén says.

"Dare to be quiet in the classroom"

As a lecturer, he believes it is important to connect with students and respond to them. He begins every lecture by asking questions, sometimes about the course and sometimes more casual ones, such as 'Did you have a good weekend?'.

"It’s important to engage with the students and not just launch straight into the lecture. One tip for teachers is to dare to be quiet and wait after asking a question. Silence makes people react and start talking,” he says.