Weekly online meetings of the humanitarians

Under quarantine conditions, weekly meetings at the faculty for humanities and pedagogics take place only online.
Continuous communication and systematic work is the key to the success of the faculty. Our main task under quarantine conditions is to maintain the flexibility and mobility of the faculty without losing its effectiveness until it returns to its usual rhythm,” said Vasyl Shynkaruk, dean of the faculty for humanities and pedagogy, at the next online administrative meeting.

New working conditions, new challenges have led to the development of new communication technologies, because remote work has become not only a trend, but also a vital necessity. So the dean of the Faculty for humanities and pedagogics worked on how to establish communication in the team, both remotely and comfortably. To this end, dean Vasyl Shynkaruk and deputy dean Yaroslav Rudyk tested several video conferencing sites in order to coordinate the work of the faculty despite restrictions. Two were chosen ‒ WebEx (from Cisco) and Zoom. The first testing of the online meeting was conducted by Vasyl Dmytrovych with his deputies, which only confirmed that the external conditions do not change the internal organization and the administrative process..

It is worth noting that the step-by-step instruction on using “Zoom” made it possible to restore the usual work schedule of the faculty – every Monday meetings of the dean's office, every Tuesday administrative meetings – and to feel support and team spirit. The established video conferencing restored not only the systematic functioning of the dean's office of the Faculty for humanities and pedagogics, compensating for the broken daily need to abandon personal contacts of daily business communication. Following the example of the dean's office, the department heads restored the systematic work of the departments' staff.

At the regular online administrative meeting of the faculty for humanities and pedagogics, chaired by dean Vasyl Shynkaruk, held on April 3, 2020, a number of important issues were discussed. The first thing the dean started the meeting with is support, communication with each other, to know which instructors and students have a situation

Among the issues discussed, was not the most attention paid to the educational process, which, as Vasyl Dmytrovych emphasized, should take place in accordance with the approved schedule of classes, because the emergency and quarantine did not stop them, but only changed their form. It has been noted that e-learn ing courses should be addressed, improving them and making the most of the e-learn platform's potential in the educational process. In addition, you should also use other means of remote communication: emails, forums, chats, video conferencing, virtual classrooms, messengers and more. It is important that under these circumstances, each student is on a "live" connection, executing an individual plan. Vasyl Dmytrovych reminded the heads of the departments about the assignments they received at one of the previous administrative boards ‒ to constantly monitor the remote conducting of classes, the presence of students, as well as to have information about who on which platforms works.

The vocational work of instructors and students, attracting entrants to the Olympiad for entrants, once again emphasized by the dean of the faculty – these are the areas of work of each of us, which should constantly be in the priorities.

Within eyesight of the administration board the preparation for accreditation of educational-vocational and educational-scientific programs, features of the summer examination session and practical training in the spring semester of 2019/2020 were also considered in quarantine; development of new or updating of current educational and professional and educational and scientific programs for training specialists (bachelors, masters, graduate students); formation of catalogs of curricula and programs of preparation of bachelors and masters in NULES of Ukraine (2020/2021); preparation of research projects for submission to the competition of scientific research and developments, implementation of which will begin in 2021 at the expense of the state budget and a number of other organizational issues.

Although videoconferencing helps to harmonize working relationships, it allows working from home during periods of limited mobility, being fully involved in the work of the faculty and the university, but remote work requires every maximum self-organization. That is why the head of the department of physical education Mykola Kostenko suggested to the department heads and instructors a form of online teambuilding – a sports marathon, which will promote their self-organization, cohesion and increase of motivation, and maintaining health, well-being.

It is not easy to work remotely, but it is an important and responsible undergoing today!

Svitlana Kharchenko,
deputy dean of the faculty for humanities and pedagogics