Learner-centred, industry-integrated, and hands-on — across undergraduate, master's, and doctoral levels at Gothenburg, Jyväskylä, and HKUST.
I design courses around authentic problems and learning-by-doing, integrating real industry projects, current cases, and hands-on prototyping so that students — including those without strong technical backgrounds — connect theory to practice. My pedagogical approach, "Learning by Doing: Using Arduino in Teaching Digital Infrastructure among Students with Diverse Technical Backgrounds," was selected as one of three finalists for the SISA Pedagogical Prize in 2024, the highest pedagogical honour in the Nordic information systems community.
Independently designed & taught · Class ≈ 40 · Fall 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
A project course in which student teams analyse digitalization challenges in real organisations, connecting theory (Technology, Platform, Infrastructure) to practice. Industry partnerships each year:
Independently designed & taught · Class ≈ 40 · Fall 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
Fundamentals of digital infrastructure — standards, installed base, network externalities, lock-in, path dependency, control, and power dynamics. In 2022–2023 I ran an Arduino workshop in which students built prototypes for self-identified real-world problems (e.g. adjusting study-room lighting and windows to user preferences). Students also visited Zenseact (autonomous-driving AI) and Västtrafik (regional public transport) to see how digital infrastructures support business.
Independently designed & taught · Class ≈ 40 · Fall 2019, 2020
Organised in three phases of lectures and seminars on theory and management. In 2019 I designed a two-and-a-half-day Hackathon in which students built Arduino prototypes to solve real problems — such as a signalling system for efficient use of parking-lot charging poles. Many of the 40 students had no prior technical experience; feedback was very positive.
"I have never worked with coding before… Especially areas that I will probably be collaborating with in the future."
Course leader; redesigned & co-taught · Class 90 · Spring 2020
Asked to take responsibility on short notice, I completely redesigned the course around the textbook Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, producing a coherent curriculum, and developed a group project set in a relatable gym-management scenario. Covers systems analysis, database and UI design, the SDLC, and project management.
Co-taught; responsible for business information systems topics · Class 81 · Fall 2018
"This course was very interesting and fun… Good teaching."
Independently designed & taught · Spring 2015 (54) & Spring 2017 (107)
A new elective on privacy across technical, organisational, and behavioural perspectives, with real-world cases. Enrolment almost doubled, from 54 (2015) to 107 (2017).
"The assignments made me think about things more deeply… a good way to prep for the exam."
Co-taught with Prof. Tuure Tuunanen · Fall 2014–2017 (58 → 131)
A comprehensive overview of major IS research streams; students prepare research proposals and engage with IS research.
Teaching assistant / lab instructor
Prepared materials on social media in business, social network analysis, and social psychology of social media (with Prof. Kar Yan Tam); taught first-year undergraduates web development (HTML/CSS), data management (relational databases, SQL), and business intelligence (Excel macros, OLAP).
"She was very active and enthusiastic… demonstrated how our studies could be helpful in the real world."
Dr. Per Persson — principal supervisor. Thesis: "Managing Socio-Technical Debt: Causes and Design-Science Solutions for Citizen-Centred Digital Public Services." Defended 3 February 2026; opponent Prof. Kalle Lyytinen. Output: three HICSS papers, one SCIS paper, and one journal publication. Drawing on Per's extensive experience as an IT architect in industry and the public sector, we grounded the work in design science and progressively integrated theoretical perspectives on the public sector's digital ecosystem.
I have supervised thirteen master's theses — three awarded VG (High Pass) at Gothenburg and two awarded grade 5 (Excellent) at Jyväskylä; one developed into a journal publication.
"I would also like to thank the supervisor of my Master study, Dr. Yixin Zhang, without whom I would never have considered academia as a career… Thank you for guiding me step by step to undertake research wisely." — Dr. Mengcheng Li, PhD dissertation acknowledgements