Twelve months. Two semesters. Hundreds of presentations. Thousands of hours of classes. An uncountable number of e-mails, messages in the chat – this was the last year of the pandemic at Collegium Da Vinci.
Overnight, both lecturers and students faced the need to transfer the vast majority of classes to the Internet space.
Distance learning at Collegium Da Vinci is conducted mainly using the Moodle platform and the Google Meet online meeting tool. All this with care to ensure that students are consistently provided with practical knowledge of high quality.
How do we deal with it?
We do not rest on our laurels but carefully check how online classes are perceived by Collegium Da Vinci students. Right from the first weeks of remote meetings, a system for testing the quality of classes and the level of satisfaction of their recipients was implemented, both for full-time and part-time studies.
Activities related to the verification of classes include, among others: telephone interviews with randomly selected students from all faculties, meetings of tutors with student representatives, inspections, surveys, quantitative and qualitative analysis. We listen carefully to the comments of students regarding the quality and content of online classes and immediately introduce the necessary changes.
In order to prepare the lecturers for remote work, we have prepared the necessary manual, updated and expanded the “Lecturer’s zone” course. Only in this academic year, 166 lecturers have benefited from it! Trainings on the use of the platform for lecturers are also conducted on an ongoing basis, especially important for newcomers appearing in each semester.
We are extremely pleased that good and very good opinions undoubtedly dominate!
The surveyed students pay attention to the great commitment of the vast majority of lecturers to the online transfer of knowledge and the care for a friendly atmosphere. They appreciate the implementation of tools that make remote classes more attractive and allow for more effective work in small groups. They also point out that online classes have influenced the awareness that we learn voluntarily – which often additionally motivates them to act!
However, we do not ignore or run away from constructive comments made by students of Collegium Da Vinci.
These usually relate to difficulties in the implementation of workshops in a remote form and the inability to meet the lecturer and group members. The waiting time for lecturers’ e-mail responses is also problematic. Students also pay attention to occasional technical problems related to the speed of the Internet or the smooth operation of communication platforms. The downside is also the need to install additional software on private computers.
We implement the necessary improvements to make online meetings more efficient, no less interesting and substantive than traditional lectures and workshops. Thanking you for your flexibility and patience so far … please do a little more!
Let’s take care of our safety to meet at Collegium Da Vinci as soon as possible!