Fredrik Erlandsson

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PhD in Computer science, data scientist at Consid AB.

Teaching Portfolio

I have a quite unconventional academic career. I got an offer to start working as a Lecturer at Blekinge Institute of Technology after finishing my master’s degree in computer science 2006. In 2012 I started persuing a PhD in Computer Science with 20% teaching, which I graduated from in January 2018. In July of 2017 I went back to my previous teaching position, with 50% teaching and 50% research, this is also my current arrangement.

I have had all possible teaching tasks during my time as a Lecturer starting from lab assistant to course responsible and program manager. I started my position at the Computer Communication group where I taught basic Computer Communication & Networking courses (Cisco Certified Network Associate etc.). During my first six years as a teacher I worked on a vast number of courses mainly in the area of Computer Networks, and Network- and Computer Science. These courses were backed by my Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering with emphasis in Telecommunication System combined with my Master’s degree in Computer Science with emphasis in Security Engineering.

I have been working as course responsible and as main teacher. My teaching is recognized with high ratings both for the pedagogic view and for my teaching style. Both students and my colleagues are very happy with the courses I have constructed and taught.

Higher Education

Subject specialization

I hold the following degrees:

Degree of Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering

with emphasis in Telecommunication System (Karlskrona, 2005).

Degree of Master of Science in Computer Science

with emphasis in Security Engineering (Ronneby, 2006).

Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science

with main research topic of collection, organization and analysis of Big Data from social media using Machine Learning combined with Complex Networks (Karlskrona, 2018).

I have also completed the following courses and certifications:

Cisco Certified Network Academy Instructor – CCNA

an industry certification for giving courses within the Cisco Certified Network Associate program (Halmstad, 2007)

Cisco Certified Network Academy Instructor – CCSP

an industry certification for giving courses within the Cisco Certified Security Professional program (Birmingham, 2008)

Pedagogical education

I have completed the following pedagogical courses:

Higher Education Pedagogy - Introductory Course 7,5 hp PE2401

— I took this course in 2009 as part of the requirement for me to get a permanent position as Adjunct at Blekinge Institute of Technology.

Undervisning och lärande i matematik och teknik 7,5 hp MD1106

— I took this course in 2009 as part of the requirement for me to get a permanent position as Adjunct at Blekinge Institute of Technology.

Pedagogical Experience

I have been active in various pedagogical activities during my six plus years as an Adjunct at Blekinge Institute of Technology and my five years as a PhD candidate including Teaching, Thesis Supervision,Program manager, and Designing of teaching environments.

Teaching Experience

I started working as a teacher with an Adjunct position at Blekinge Institute of Technology in January 2006. I have been involved in every thinkable part of teaching, starting from lab-assistant to course responsible and program manager during these years.

I’ve also been the lead developer of introducing Cisco Certification into the Computer Network courses at BTH (mainly Computer Communications and Network Technologies 1-2 and Communications- and Network Security). I was the only one at BTH with the right competence to deliver Computer Networks courses within the Cisco Certification Network Associate program during a period of three years,as Cisco requires instructors to pass their competence assurance program.

The following is a subset of the courses I have taught on undergraduate level:

Database Techniques

(7.5 ECTS) — This is an introductory course in databases. I have been giving this course several years as course responsible where I have developed course material in form of lectures and lab-exercises. My main activities with students include giving lectures, aiding students during lab-exercises and examining students both practically and with a written exam. Course evaluation is attached as Attachment A1.

Data Communications and Network Technologies 1

(7.5 ECTS) — This is an introductory course in data communication and computer networks. I have been giving this course several years as course responsible where I have developed course material in form of lectures and lab-exercises. My main activities with students include giving lectures, aiding students during lab-exercises and examining students both practically and with written exams.

Data Communications and Network Technologies 2

(7.5 ECTS) — This is intermediate course in data communication and computer networks. I have been giving this course several years as course responsible where I have developed course material in form of lectures and lab-exercises. My main activities with students include giving lectures, aiding students during lab-exercises and examining students both practically and with written exams.

Information and Communication Technologies

(15 ECTS) — This is an introductory course in computer techniques and basic computer networking. I have been giving this course several years as course responsible where I have developed course material in form of lectures and lab-exercises. My main activities with students include giving lectures, aiding students during lab-exercises and examining students both practically and with written exams.

Introduction to Security

(7.5 ECTS) — This is an introductory course in security giving the students a broad understanding of the field. I have been giving this course several years as course responsible where I have developed course material in form of lectures and lab-exercises. My main activities with students include giving lectures, aiding students during lab-exercises and examining students both practically and with written exams. Course evaluation is attached as Attachments A2 & A3.

Risk and security management

(7.5 ECTS) — This is a course developed for the Safety and Security program which I was course responsible for.

Information and Communication Security

(7.5 ECTS) — This is a course developed for the Safety and Security program which I was course responsible.

Advanced Security Technology

(7.5 ECTS) — This is a course developed for the Safety and Security program which I was course responsible.

Network security – Basic course

(7.5 ECTS) — This is a course developed for the Safety and Security program which I was course responsible.

The following is a subset of the courses I have taught on graduate level:

Wireless Personal Area Networks

(7.5 ECTS) — This is an intermediate course that covers various wireless low power networking techniques. I have been giving this course a couple of years, starting as teaching- and lab-assistant and during the last two occasions as course responsible where I developed course material in form of lectures and lab-exercises. My main activities with students include giving lectures, aiding students during lab-exercises and examining students both practically and with written exams.

Network security

(7.5 ECTS) — This is an advanced course in computer and network security including firewalls, end-to-end encryption and intrusion detection. I have been giving this course several years as course responsible where I have developed course material in form of lectures and lab-exercises. My main activities with students include giving lectures, aiding students during lab-exercises and examining students both practically and with written exams.

Communications- and Network Security

(7.5 ECTS) — This is an advanced course in network security. I have been giving this course several years as course responsible where I have developed the course from scratch including a course syllabus and all course material in form of lectures and lab-exercises. My main activities with students include giving lectures, aiding students during lab-exercises and examining students both practically and with written exams.

Programming in UNIX Environment

(7.5 ECTS) — This is a course mainly given for graduate students in the IT-security programs. During the two occasions when I was involved in the course, I worked with two third of the practical parts of the course (namely bash and python programming). I gave both the corresponding lectures as well as aided and examined the students in the computer lab to the exercises.

Computer Security

(7.5 ECTS) — This is an advanced course for graduate students in the IT-security program. I have given this course once and the course was given as a project based course where the students were given guidance in how to complete the course assignments. Later I have rewritten the course syllabus to further allow the students to explore and learn the subject. Course evaluation is attached as Attachment A4.

Software Security

(7.5 ECTS) — This is an advanced course for graduate students in the IT-security program. I have given this course once and the course was given as a practical course where the students are solving practical assignments with guidance from lectures and exercises. Course evaluation is attached as Attachment A5.

Thesis Supervision

Over my several years as adjunct and further as a PhD.Candidate I have supervised numerous student thesis works. Both at undergraduate level (bachelor) and as graduate level (master and civil-engineer).

The following is a list of the thesises I have supervised.

Program manager

I was the program manager for the two-year program called “Safety- and Security Technology” during the period between 2009 and 2012, where I was responsible for the pedagogic leadership. For the class of 2011 I also lead the development of a third year resulting in a bachelor’s degree program.

Designing of teaching environments

Together with the more theoretical part of the Computer Network courses I also designed a few lab-rooms to fit the practical requirements from Cisco, but also to fit our student groups and provide an efficient and good learning environment for my students. The practical design of lab-rooms is interesting as there are many aspects to consider. For instance I decided to have lab-equipment close to the students, where other universities I have visited have the equipment further away from the students. My students are highly appreciating the presented lab configuration, according to interviews I have conducted with my students, and when faced with the more traditional arrangement it seems (from my students) that the way I have decided to design the lab is highly preferable. Mostly as my configuration allows students more direct access to the lab-equipment than the traditional configuration.

Pedagogical Approach

My pedagogical approach is that I as teacher should be able to act more as a coach, aiding the students with suggestions and directions on how to move forward in terms of learning.

I am also a strong advocate of learning by doing, which states that the key for deep learning is to not only learn the theories but also with practical experience. It is only by trying out the learned theories and technique one can fully evolve and understand the subject. I strive to design my courses in this direction mixing theory with practical exercises, often in form of labs but also as “live-hacks” during lectures. These “live-hacks” are welcomed breaks from the traditional lectures where I demonstrate short code segments and various configuration approaches.

Teaching Approach

My teaching is based much upon observations from colleagues on how to give good lectures. The observations I have made suggest that a very enthusiastic teachers are able to transfer this enthusiasm to the students. Enthusiastic students that are hungry to learn is a very good start when it comes to teaching.

One example of a course that I am giving as a course responsible, examiner and main lecturer is the course “Database Techniques”. I am redesigning the course based on previous occasions and the comments from course evaluations from previous years. I have approximate 100 students from four different study programs, at current course occasion (spring 2018). The course is now designed with course modules where each module have its set of lectures and laboratory practical exercises. The lectures are redesigned to cover both the corresponding theoretical parts, and the more practical part that illustrates the skills and practical tools for the course modules. The lectures are also arranged together with supervised practical computer assignments where I together with the teaching assistant are helping and guiding the students through the exercises. New for this course is that I have decided not to give course credits during the supervised exercises, instead we have a separate occasion that give students credits for their practical achievement. This gives more time for supervising and helping students for the learning process in the practical part of the course. The course has also been changed so the project more reflect the course content. Finally have I decided that the final exam for the course will be given as a computer aided exam. This as students now a-day are more used to writing on a computer than with pen and paper. My vision is that this will take off the load from the student during the stressfulness of writing by letting them write through a computer.

Supervising Approach

I am focusing on guidance and support when it comes to supervising students in thesis work. I am giving the students directions and incremental suggestions on how to move forward with the problem at hand. This is similar to what I addressed before and relates to the concept of learning by doing.

One example is the thesis I supervised for a student in the civil engineer program in “Master of Science in Computer and Electrical Engineering” in spring 2017. My student had a very broad idea of the type of work he was interested in, so we narrowed it down to a specific topic together, namely a thesis titled “An Exploratory Study on Viral Content on Online Social Media”. Throughout the period my student worked on this project we had weekly meetings where he presented his progress and I aided him with questions and suggestions on how to proceed and frame his work. The thesis turned out very well and by the end my student got a job at a company where he could continue expanding the work he did with his thesis.

Vision

My vision of teaching, besides for the most obvious of being and expert knowledgeable in the subject, is that I should inspire and motivate students. I have learned, over my years as teacher at the university, that if I can inspire my students to take interest in my course and subject (rather than seeing the course as just another one that needs to be cleared before graduating) the student will also learn the course content. A very successful approach is to give blended lectures, i.e. give lectures that mix the theoretical concepts with practical exercises and demonstrations.

Teaching material

During my several years as teacher, examiner and course responsible I have developed a vast number of lectures, assignments (often in form of computer aided lab exercises) and exams for my courses.

Lectures

One big challenge with lecture material is to find the right balance between theory and practical information. One very successful approach is to give mixed lectures, where the theoretical content is illustrated by practical examples. This is often delivered as “live-hacks” where I switch out from the lecture slides and show short real code examples. This enables the students to not only focus on theory and terminology but also shows students real life settings, i.e. what is it good for.

Assignments/Exercises

The goal of the created assignments and exercises is to enable learning by practical experience. Depending on the level of my students the descriptions of the exercises have to vary quite a lot. For instance, assignment for first and second year students requires quite detailed description of the domain together with the actual assignment. In many cases the assignments for these students needs to provide hints and broad suggestions of the solution. Where as assignments for students in later classes can be much less detailed and allow the students to reason and discuss for a solution. In these cases can the assignment be more like a requirement specification listing what a costumer needs and then is it up to the student to figure out, with guidance from the teacher(s), how to reach this.

Written Exams

I strive to create exam questions in a way that the student writing the exam have an opportunity to learn while writing the exam. My point of view for a good exam question is that the student writing the exam should be able to discuss and argue within the question and the topic for the course. But it is unfortunately not possible to have all questions this open ended, in such cases I strive for questions that are not in the form where the answer is just to show that the student are able to memorize the learning material. I am also trying to avoid simple questions in the form of just explaining abbreviations and terminology. But, in some occasions are the terminology and essential part of the course content so it is essential for the students to use the right terminology to show that he/she have understood and learned the subject. Often is the course syllabus written in a form that the student should be able to discuss the topics and contents of the course and often is it necessary for the student to understand and learn corresponding terminology and language to have a meaningful conversation about the topics.

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

During my time as Adjunct and driver of the Cisco Networking Academy I attended in bi-monthly meetings with other Cisco Academies. Part of these were meeting that I co-arranged (with other colleagues at Blekinge Institute of Technology) at Blekinge Institute of Technology.

I also did attend the International Academy Conference 2007 in Istanbul Turkey within the Cisco Networking Academy program.

Further more, I have given guest lectures to the courses “Research Orientation in Security” and “Industrial Marketing — Theory and Practice” where I have explained my research focus and results.

I have also involved students in terms of scientific approach in several of my courses where my students were given the task to select recent publications or given a selection of publications; to foster critical approach and scientific methods.

Non Academic Pedagogical Activities

I have been active in various pedagogical activities for other groups than students at the university in the following settings:

Hired teaching consultant

— I was contacted by Business Security in 2009 to give a guest series on the topic of Network Security for a group of about 10 persons.

Spring break activity for middle-school students

— I did arrange an activity for high-school pupils during spring break (“sport lov”) of 2008. This activity involved design and construction of a Lego robot and programming of this robot.

Forskar fredag

— I was invited speaker for the local event called “Forskar fredag” held in Kreativum during two consecutive years. Where I met and had a discussion with high-school pupils regarding privacy threats in online social media platforms.

Unga forskare

— I was contacted by Kreativum in 2015 to give a inspirational speech for high school pupils during the event called “Unga forskare”.

Local Radio

— During spring of 2018 I did get contacted and gave various interviews and pedagogical talks for the local radio stations ‘P4 - Radio Blekinge’ and ‘P4 - Radio Kristianstad’.

Expert panel

— I was invited as an expert on social media to a panel that took place at “Högskolan i Kristianstad” in April 2018.

Other Pedagogical Merits

During my time as Adjunct and driver of the Cisco Networking Academy did I attend in bi-monthly meetings with other Cisco Academies. Part of these were meeting that I co-arranged (with other colleagues at Blekinge Institute of Technology) at Blekinge Institute of Technology. These meeting acted both as updates to the recent shifts in industry but also as forum for all the teachers withing the academy program in the southern part of Sweden.