This thesis is a part of a project, “Interactive Learning in Distance Education”, funded by The Swedish Research Council. The overall purpose was, from adult distance learners’ perspective, to describe, analyse and understand factors influencing studies and interactive learning in asynchronous computer-mediated learning environments. Da¬ta were collected in 2003; from 62 students (56 women and six men) attending an undergraduate and a supplementary distance cour¬se within the teacher training program. The study was based on questionnaires, diaries, portfolios, interviews and transcriptions of students’ postings to the computer conferences FirstClass and Web¬Board, respectively. The courses included campus meetings and individual studies accompanied by study guides containing reading instructions, timetables and individual as well as group-related assign¬ments. Asynchronous text-based, computer-mediated commu¬nication (CMC) was used for dialogue among the participants. The results indicate that difficulties to combine studies with commitments in the students’ everyday lives and lack of familiarity with higher education and computer mediated distance education constituted learning obstacles. Almost everyone emphasised the importance of communicaion with peer students for feeling satisfied in the study and learning situation. They appreciated the asynchronous text-based CMC because it increased the flexibility of the studies. The students´ online behaviour and statements also indicate feelings of social presence and solidarity with peer learners, despite using a medium with relatively low capacity to convey social cues. Female and male students described similar difficulties of combining family, work and study. Women sho¬wed lower self-esteem in terms of computer skills and coping with their studies. They highlighted the social importance of the studygroup to a higher extent than the men did. The ideal course design in terms of structure, dialogue and autonomy altered depending on students´ perceptions of benefits. They wanted flexibility and autonomy to be able to combine the studies with commitments in their everyday life, at the same time they appreciated elements of structure and governance in situations when these involved saving of time. The communication in the computer conferences was extensive but the analysis of the learners’ contributions provides little evidence of effective collaborative learning activities. Several reasons to this were discussed, e.g. students´ lack of time and knowledge to form functioning learning communities, as well as insufficient course design to promote and support collaborative distance learning. It was concluded that there is a gap between teachers' ambitions to create an interactive learning environment on the one hand, and students´ skills, attitudes to collaboration and need to share their time between studies and other commitments on the other. Also, teachers´ ambitions to develop distance education aiming at collaboration and interactive learning are often hampered by their limited skills and time frames to design and implement such courses. / Interactive Learning in Distance Education

Sedan 1950-talet har konsumtions- och utvinningsekonomier accelererat vilketbidragit till ett samhälle präglat av exponentiell tillväxt och linjära ekonomiskasystem. Om trenderna fortsätter förväntas konsumtionsmängder år 2050 bli tre gångerså höga sett till vad planeten klarar av. Konsekvenser är utarmning av värdefullanaturresurser och ekosystem. För att uppfylla Parisavtalets 1,5 graders målidentifieras cirkulär ekonomi vara av vikt. Cirkulär ekonomi är en regenererandeekonomi på uppgång med syfte att bibehålla produkter och material i flöde under enså lång tid som möjligt. Studien tydliggör och jämför mönster i samband mednuvarande cirkulära tjänster, hinder, möjligheter och utvecklingsområden förcirkulära affärsmodeller inom outdoor-branschen. Syftet är att sammanställa kunskapför att bidra till utvecklig inom branschen. Metoden består av en dokumentanalys avhemsidor och hållbarhetsrapporter hos 18 outdoor-företag och 10 företag med cirkuläraffärsmodell kopplat till nuvarande cirkulära tjänster. Sedan semistruktureradeintervjuer med 9 outdoor-företag samt en enkätundersökning med 22 SOGmedlemsföretag för att samla in och analysera hinder, möjligheter ochutvecklingsområden. Studien visar att analyserade företag i olika hög grad har börjatatt implementera cirkulära tjänster utifrån produktkategori och vald affärsmodell.Vanligt upplevda hinder beskrivs som kostnader för vidareutveckling, politiskahinder, linjär affärsmodell, logistik samt ekonomisk lönsamhet. För traditionellaföretag beskrivs linjära affärsmodeller vara ett övergripande hinder som kan ligga tillgrund för andra identifierade hinder. För företag med cirkulär affärsmodell kopplashinder till kapitalanskaffning. Oavsett organisatorisk uppbyggnad eller affärsmodellför en verksamhet kan hinder för utveckling vara delade, t.ex. politiska faktorer ochsamhällsbeteenden. Identifierade möjligheter beskrivs som kundlojalitet ochsamarbete, följt av marknadsföring samt innovationer. För både traditionella företagoch företag med cirkulär affärsmodell beskrivs liknande uppfattningar kopplat tillmöjligheter. Verksamheterna kan få större möjlighet till kundkontakt i och medutveckling av produktstegen vid t.ex. uthyrning eller second-hand försäljning. Vidareidentifieras branschöverskridande samarbeten som en stor möjlighet. Vilket kan bidratill ett snabbare skifte sett till stora globala flöden och skapa incitament förvidareutveckling av återvinningssystem. Kopplat till utvecklingsmöjligheter anseshögre användning av återvunna material, samarbete samt upp-skalning vara viktigt.Det är tydligt att utvecklingsområden inom branschen skiljs åt utifrån olika faktorert.ex. verksamheternas inriktning, kategori, storlek samt typ av vald affärsmodell. Endel av slutsatsen är vikten av utveckling mot gemensamma materialströmmar samtinsamlingssystem för att möjliggöra värdeuppfyllnad av cirkulär ekonomi till enhögre grad. Samtidigt identifieras enskilda aktörers arbete och lösningar underutvecklingsfasen vara av stor vikt för att bygga vidare på utveckling och efterfrågan isamhället vilket kan bidra till överkommandet av externa barriärer så som politiskafaktorer och samhällsbeteenden. / Since the 1950s, consumption and extraction economies have accelerated, which hascreated a society characterized by exponential growth and linear economic systems. Iftrends continue, consumption volumes in 2050 are expected to be three times as highof what Earth can handle. Consequences are depletion of valuable natural resourcesand ecosystems. In order to meet the Paris Agreement’s 1.5-degree goal, circulareconomy is identified as important. Circular economy is a regenerating economy onthe rise with the aim of maintaining products and materials in flows for as long aspossible. This thesis clarifies and compares patterns in connection with currentcircular services, obstacles, opportunities and development areas for circular businessmodels in the outdoor-industry, with the aim to compile knowledge in contributionfor development. The method consists of a document analysis of websites andsustainability reports of 18 outdoor companies and 10 companies with a circularbusiness model linked to current circular services. Then semi-structured interviewswith 9 outdoor companies and a survey with 22 SOG member companies, to collectand analyze obstacles, opportunities and development areas. The thesis shows avarying degree of implementation of circular services by analyzed companies, basedon product category and current business model. These companies - describedobstacles as costs for further development, political barriers, linear business models,logistics and economic profitability. For traditional companies, linear business modelsare described as an overall obstacle that can form the basis for other commonlyperceived obstacles. For companies with a circular business model, obstacles arelinked to capital raising. Regardless of the organizational structure or business modelfor a business, obstacles for development can be shared, e.g. political factors andsocietal behaviors. Identified opportunities are described as customer loyalty andcollaboration, followed by marketing and innovations. For both traditional companiesand companies with a circular business model, similar opportunities are described.The businesses can have big opportunities regarding customer contact through thedevelopment of products steps at e.g. rental or second-hand sales. Furthermore, crossindustrycollaborations are identified as an important area of development. Whichalso can contribute to a faster shift in terms of large global flows and create incentivesregarding further development of for example recycling systems. Linked todevelopment opportunities, higher use of recycled materials, collaboration andupscaling are considered important. It is clear that development areas for the industryare distinguished on the basis of various factors, e.g. focus for the business, category,size and type of chosen business model. Part of the conclusion concerns theimportance of development towards common material flows and collection systems toenable fulfillment of circular economy to a higher degree. At the same time, the workand solutions from individual actors during the development phase are identified tobe of great importance to further develop and create a demand in the society, whichcan contribute to the overcoming of external barriers such as political factors andsocietal behavior. / <p>2021-06-04</p>

Children spend a lot of time in school during their childhood and it is important that schools are safe and good environments. Though, mental illness among pupils in Sweden continues to increase. The education act (SFS 2010:800) states that schools and especially school counselors should work with health promotion and prevention with primarily mental illness, even if the content of such prevention remain a bit unclear. The aim of this study was to describe and analyze how school counselors talk about prevention as part of their work to counter mental illness among pupils. The study has a constructionistic approach and method used is qualitative interviews, where the interviewees are school counselors.School counselors express knowledge about mental illness, but underline a need to continuously learn more about young people’s living conditions and how to prevent mental illness. The school counselors are consistent about the importance of working preventively against mental illness in school, a work which they see as unclear and primarily construct as being present among pupils and group activities. However, obstacles are perceived within school organizations to carry out such preventive work, which relate to ad hoc tasks, scarce resources, unclear guidelines and challenging collaboration with other professional groups in the school.

Denna studie besvarar vilka möjligheter och hinder som i dagsläget finns för teknologin generativ design (GD) inom företag. Frågeställningen besvarades genom en insamling av befintlig kunskap i form av en litteraturstudie som senare kombinerades med dagens kunskap i branschen genom kvalitativa intervjuer, semi-strukturerade intervjuer, med personer som kommit i kontakt med teknologin. GD:s utveckling på senare år har präglats av framgångar, och kommer oundvikligen att påverka flertalet industrier i framtiden. Det som dock visade sig är att den nuvarande kunskapsnivån är för låg hos företagen vilket gör att de inte kan använda tekniken till sin fulla potential. Detta kombinerat med systemets komplexa lösningar, vars strukturer kräver dyra tillverkningsmetoder, leder ofta till att företag anser att systemet inte är nödvändiga att implementera i dagsläget. För tillfället utnyttjar företag systemen främst för konceptframtagning då de arbetar med banbrytande design. Detta gör även att vissa industrier har större användning av teknologin än andra. Däremot finns en optimism om att teknologin kommer att sprida sig till andra industrier i framtiden. / This study answers what opportunities and obstacles currently exist for the technology generative design (GD) in companies. The question was answered through a collection of existing knowledge in the form of a literature study which was later combined with today's knowledge in the industry through qualitative interviews, semi-structured interviews, with people who have come into contact with the technology. GD's development in recent years has been marked by success, and will inevitably affect most industries in the future. What turned out, however, is that the current level of knowledge is too low at the companies, which means that they cannot use the technology to its full potential. This, combined with the system's complex solutions, whose structures require expensive manufacturing methods, often leads companies to consider that the system is not necessary to implement at the present time. At the moment, companies use the systems primarily for concept development when they work with ground-breaking designs. This also means that some industries have greater use of the technology than others. However, there is optimism that the technology will spread to other industries in the future.