First Doctoral Thesis Defended at Tallinn Tech's IT College

Tiina Kasuk has made history at Tallinn University of Technology's IT College by successfully defending the institution's first doctoral thesis. Her research focused on the integration of remote presence robots into synchronous hybrid learning environments, aiming to equally engage students who are physically absent.

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IT college has been an incredibly cool environment for doing doctoral studies. Both the environment and the company have been inspiring.

Kasuk developed and validated a specific pedagogical design model called PEPCII. This framework is designed to balance spatial, ethical, pedagogical, and cognitive factors within the learning process. The goal is to provide higher education institutions and educators with practical guidelines for creating interactive and sustainable hybrid learning environments for the future.

She described her doctoral journey, which began in the fall of 2022, as initially literature-focused before quickly moving to practical experiments. Kasuk found the IT College to be an inspiring environment, testing robots in real classes, organizing workshops, and even hosting robot races.

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Perseverance, setting small goals, and participating in the 'Science in 3 Minutes' competition, which forced me to look at the research from an outsider's perspective, helped maintain consistency.

Kasuk attributed her success to perseverance, setting small goals, and participating in the "Science in 3 Minutes" competition, which encouraged her to view her research from an outsider's perspective. Unexpectedly, she found that mandatory breaks for family life positively impacted her work. "The secret to success was the forced pauses in between, where two bright-eyed, curly-haired children wanted my full attention as a mother. This regular switching off later paid off with much more productive work," she revealed.

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The secret to success was the forced pauses in between, where two bright-eyed, curly-haired children wanted my full attention as a mother. This regular switching off later paid off with much more productive work.

She encouraged aspiring doctoral students, assuring them that the fear of boring theory is unfounded. "If the topic resonates with you, it's an exciting and sometimes crazy undertaking. Careful topic selection and a supportive supervision team are already half the battle," Kasuk stated, emphasizing that her research, titled "Implementation of Remote Presence Robots in the Learning Process," marks a significant milestone for the IT College.

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If the topic resonates with you, it's an exciting and sometimes crazy undertaking. Careful topic selection and a supportive supervision team are already half the battle.