Learning Services – enabling success for students
Learning Services enables students a new, digital experience of Aalto.
Learning Services – enabling success
Learning Services (LES) supports future-oriented learning and the smoothness of daily work.
In line with the Aalto University strategy, we advance high-quality and data-driven teaching and learning with a life-wide learning path. Learning Services (LES) has a key role in making these goals possible. We develop our service offering in a future-led and user-oriented manner.
The Learning Services’ operations are divided into process areas, each of which have an owner responsible for its development. Read more on the process owner model at the bottom of this page (link to further down on the page) A large part of the processes and services are digitised and made available through the service platform, Sisu or on another platform.
Sisu is continuously being developed in close collaboration with other higher education institutions using Sisu and the service provider Funidata. The development is driven by the needs of the higher education institutions and the requirements set by the authorities. At Aalto University, the development needs are identified in collaboration with the Aalto community.
The development focus for 2025 will specifically be on the enhancement of the selected focal areas: usability improvements, functionalities related to curricula, continuous learning functionalities, and functionalities that increase automation and self-service options. Concurrently, efforts will be invested in developing electronic certificates and revising the study plan to enhance its accessibility. Additionally, development work will be carried out to meet the needs of cross-institutional studies and the functionalities related to Opin.fi/Digivision. Prominent outcomes of the recent development efforts include the integration of Open University functionalities and some functionalities related to cross-institutional studies into Sisu. Furthermore, the accessibility of student registration functionalities has been improved, and the processes related to evaluations performed by teachers in Sisu have been streamlined.
The service platform utilizing Salesforce technology has become an integral part of Aalto's digital ecosystem. With the help of the service platform solutions, we are able to offer applicants, students, academic staff and service personnel various digital services, related to e.g. student admissions, planning studies and academic advising. The goal is to continue digitalising processes and replacing outdated systems with Salesforce-based solutions. You can read more on the current situation of each project in our monthly newsletters. For additional information about the service platform, see: /en/digital-aalto/aalto-service-platfo
The world changes quickly and requires constant updating of skills and knowledge. This has also been identified in Aalto's strategy. The development of lifewide learning processes and Digivision 2030 project development are a key part of Learning Services' service development. You can read more about Lifewide Learning services and Digivisio 2030 project.
Learning Services activities structured into process areas
The activities of Learning Services are structured into different process areas, each of which has an assigned process owner. The process owners are members of the Learning Services Operative management team (LESjory).
In the process owner model, each Learning Services process has a clearly defined process owner. Attached you will find LES' current process area descriptions and process owners. The owners are responsible for managing and developing the processes of their own process area in line with the strategy in cooperation with key stakeholders, such as students, academic staff and other university service units. Process owners evaluate development processes and their progress and schedule future development projects in quarterly reviews.
The process owner model has been developed to support the organisation and development of the Learning Services operations. The model is based on the OPI reference architecture (2015), which is a common reference framework for higher education institutions, used to structure the shared activities of higher education institutions.
The roadmap summarises Learning Services’ development work
The Learning Services development projects are compiled annually on a roadmap spanning four years at a time. The roadmap is created in cooperation between process owners in a review held in October each year, and it is evaluated throughout the year with checkpoints around March and August. The roadmap work includes the development needs arising from the process areas of each process owner, which fall into three categories: process development for services to be digitised; actual digitalisation development on the Service Platform, Sisu or elsewhere; and other development work. The development work is strongly linked to Our plan and milestones recorded there. In addition, attention is paid on small-scale development in process areas. The development needs are prioritised with the help of criteria common to all service units.
When working on the roadmap, it is also ensured that there are sufficient resources and the organisation is able to manage the changes needed. Aalto IT Services (ITS) participates in the roadmap work, highlighting the perspective of platforms and IT resources in particular.
LeSG (Learning Steering Group) approves the roadmap presented by LESjory.
You will find the latest version of the roadmap here.
Benefits for students and lifelong learners
- Personal Aalto services in one place for full engagement in Aalto community
- Services available anywhere, anytime
- Visibility 91ÇàÇà²Ý course offering to ensure relevant skills for future work life
- Graduation according to the learner’s personal schedules and goals
- Support for lifelong learning, multidisciplinary studies and mobility
Benefits for faculty
- Scalable services to support increasing number of students and lifelong learners
- Essential and real-time student information available for analysis and decision making
- Information systems support the planning and organising of teaching
- Better service support from Aalto personnel through more efficient, unified processes
Benefits for service personnel
- Enable scalable support services for increasing numbers of students and lifelong learners
- Information systems support daily work, which also means less manual work
- Opportunities to provide more personalized support to students and faculty​
The Leap for Learning project has ended
The Leap for Learning project (2018–2023) focussed on three major Learning Services (LES) projects: the deployment and development of Sisu, the learning and study information system; LES process harmonisation and development; and the introduction of the Salesforce service platform to support the improved processes and digitalisation. As the name suggests, the project period was a leap for learning for both Aalto and Learning Services, and the lessons learned during the project period will continue to be applied to build a sustainable, user-friendly and future-oriented Aalto University in the future.
The project sought to build digital solutions for enriching the user and service experiences of students and staff. It also aimed to satisfy the needs of new user groups (such as life-wide learners) and to make more efficient use of data and analytics in our work.
The project had a joint steering group and a designated change organisation to support its work. Now that the project has come to a close, the activities of the steering group, as well as those of the sponsors and project leads, has ended. The tasks of the Leap for Learning steering group were mainly transferred to LeSG (Learning Steering Group).
Leap for Learning for teachers
Many teaching and learning services and workflows will be renewed over the coming year. Related projects have been brought together under the heading of Leap for Learning.
Leap for Learning for Learning Services Personnel
The number of students and lifelong learners is likely to increase in the future, and so is the digital collaboration between universities.
Learning Services
Management of education