1. Institute of Informatics
Peeter Normak
Director of the Institute

2. Topics History of the institute
Current administrative structure of the institute
Staff
Curricula
Research focuses and organization
Selection of current R&D projects

3. History 1986 – Teacher of Math., Physics & Informatics (chair of Math)
1989 – Chair of Informatics in Math & Informatics Department
1998 – Informatics bachelor-level programme
2001 – Department of Informatics in Math. & Nat. Sciences faculty
- Multimedia & Learning Environments master’s programme
- Management of Information Technology master’s programme
2006 – IMKE/HCI international master’s programme
2008 – Institute of Informatics
2010 – Information Society Technologies PhD programme
- Educational Technology master’s programme

4. Structure Institute of Informatics (IFI) has three subunits:
Centre for Educational Technology (CET, head Mart Laanpere)
Interaction design lab (ID lab, David Lamas)
Digital safety lab (DS lab, Andro Kull)
CET (17 persons + PhD students):
Initiating and running R&D projects,
Running Educational Technology master’s program.
ID lab (5 persons + PhD students):
Running Interactive Media and Knowledge Environments master’s program.
DS lab (2 persons + PhD students)
Providing courses in DS for all curricula.
The rest (21 persons) is involved mainly with teaching.

5. Staff by categories 3 professors 2 associate professor
1 senior researcher
3 postdoctoral researchers
8 researchers
4 lecturers
6 teachers
4 technicians
7 IT developers
7 assistants

6. Curricula Bachelor level Master level Doctoral level
Informatics (focus on software engineering)
Master level
Management of Information Technology
Educational Technology (Multimedia and Learning Systems)
Interactive Media and Knowledge Environments
Teacher of Informatics, School ICT Manager
Doctoral level
Information Society Technologies
Didactics of Informatics (Educational Sciences)

7. Digital learning ecosystems:
The main research area
Digital learning ecosystems:
A distributed adaptive socio-technical system consisting of subjects of learning (learners, teachers, facilitators), digital learning artifacts (learning environments, learning tools, learning objects) and purposeful subject-subject and subject-artifact interactions.
Major subareas:
Educational Technology
Interaction Design
Digital Content and Repositories
Digital Learning Environments and Tools
Safety & Trust Issues, serious gaming

8. Research organization
Studies are/should be research based.
Basic document: R&D strategy of TLU for
Digital learning ecosystems is one out of 9 strategic research areas of the university.
Administrative support in TLU: Research Administration Office.
Research is normally project based.
Institutes have research funds for lowering the financial risks.
Conducting research and writing articles is normally in teams.
Working time is free.

9. Examples of some current R&D projects
Targeted research theme “E-learning systems with distributed architecture, their interoperability and models of application”.
EU FP7 large-scale integrated project Learning Layers (“Scaling up Technologies for Informal Learning in SME Clusters”).
EU FP7 project S-Team (“Science Teacher Education Advanced Methods”).
EL Leonardo program project CATEL (“Cultural Awareness in Vocational Training through e-Learning”).
EL LLL program project CoCreat (“Enabling Creative Collaboration Through Supportive Technologies”).

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