A matter of the students’ feeling that they belong to the university environment

Dr Grischa Liebel, associate professor at the Department of Computer Science, completed his PhD at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg in 2018 and began working at RU the same year. Originally from Germany, he completed most of his undergraduate studies there before moving to Sweden to pursue his PhD.

Having lived in Sweden, my wife, Anna Liebel, who also works at RU, and I wanted to stay in the Nordics. We had been in Iceland before, so when this position at RU became available, we thought it could be fun to try it, so I applied, and here we still are.

Says Grischa, adding that he has always found computers interesting, though he wasn´t necessarily going to study computer science right from the beginning. His parents are both mathematicians, so he considered studying math as well, but once he started his studies in computer science, he found it fun, though it was tough at first.

Research connected to humans is at the forefront

Grischa´s research has always been very broad due to his wide-ranging interests.

I'm in software engineering, which is generally about building better software. Part of my research is more closely linked to traditional software engineering, focusing on processes and technical topics. Meanwhile, I've always done research connected to humans and human interaction and five years ago, I started working with neurodiversity, looking at people who, for example, are autistic or have ADHD and how they fit into the software development processes. The thing I've always done since my PhD is try to connect my research to the educational side as well, which is why I, for example, also do neurodiversity in education.

Explains Grischa, who recently held a workshop focusing on educational practices that best support neurodiverse students.

During my PhD, I supervised a master's student who had certain issues, and it was a very difficult experience for both of us, I guess. This led me to think and discuss with colleagues about how to act and help those students. I am now working in an international group on this, which I really enjoy. It's an open community of people who are happy you're helping them. This is refreshing, since I´m used to working in an industry where you are always trying very hard to sell your work.

Says Grischa, adding that many small steps need to be taken, with maybe the single best step being that we talk about it and raise awareness.

It’s a matter of the students’ feeling that they belong to the university environment. This can be done through smaller changes, such as how your slides look or the assignments you give the student. Something that seems small to us, like background or colours, can trigger some people. This is why we advocate offering alternatives if you can. For example, if you have group work or a big written report that is challenging for someone who is severely dyslexic, can you offer an alternative? A lot of students with ADHD or autism also have issues with group work, and it doesn't mean you should stop doing those things, but it's just more for the teacher to reflect on whether that is a necessary thing in their course.

He says, adding that at some point, we must be realistic: not everyone can be mentored one-to-one, but much of it comes down to structuring the environment. Keeping in mind, for instance, that very large classes and a noisy environment can be tricky for some people.

Doable changes and adaptations

Grischa is currently a part of a group working on a two-year project funded by the Ministry of Higher Education, titled; Neurodiversity – Best Practices for Higher Education," and the group has held a few well-attended events to suggest feasible changes and adaptations that require little time.

Our project is evolving all the time. We recruited teachers from here and in Akureyri to discuss their courses, made suggestions for what they could change, and tried to help them a bit. Then we try to follow up with that, what their experience is, and at the same time, we also collect data from students, how they see those different changes and so on. The feedback is that students are happy with whatever adaptations you make. We essentially advocate for the changes you can offer, and then students choose themselves.

Says Grischa.

One initiative at RU is a programming course offered for the first time last autumn at Opni Háskólinn for autistic adults. The course has proved a success, with 12 students attending, and two are now considering enrolling in full-time studies.

It's already a success that we're basically at the end of the course, and we've had one student drop out. So just the fact that they have followed through is quite successful, and we are quite happy with that. This has been a learning curve for us all, and, connected to that, I think it is also important to raise and demystify the idea of neurodiversity being a superpower topic, not just how it works. I mean, there are people like that, but just like in the rest of the population, you just have the whole range. And that's also something we see in this programming course. We have people who are extremely good at it and pick up everything, and we have others who really struggle with it. Just like in any class.

A creative mix of people

Grischa concludes by saying that he finds it quite fascinating to see whether we can come up with better ideas or make things more creative through teamwork involving autistic people and people with ADHD.

I think, in the software space, we constantly look at how we can make software design more creative, and we have done that long before AI and long before neurodiversity being well known. If we're creative, we can come up with new ideas, and I think this is an exciting space, both for the whole AI stuff and for neurodiversity, because we have a lot of people in there who think outside the box. Because their brains are wired differently in a way, and they think differently.