For several years in a row, the Department of Employee Training and Development, Lviv Polytechnic, has been conducting trainings for various categories of academic and support staff. Surveys are a mandatory component of such trainings, which help analyze the requests and needs of Polytechnicians, improve various processes, and introduce innovative methods in work and training.
In this academic year, two webinars were held for the curators of student groups of the first year of the bachelor’s degree, during which the academics received informational materials and recommendations on establishing work with the groups they supervise. Lots of them already have many years of experience working with students, so they shared with the participants the methods of its organization.
– Interesting is the practice of the Institute of Geodesy and the Institute of Jurisprudence, Psychology and Innovative Education, where senior students are brought in to help the curators of first-year students. They consult and explain the organizational peculiarities of the educational process – in particular, how VLE works, why it is important to use corporate e-mail, how to enter a student’s personal e-cabinet, where the academic buildings are located, how to choose a discipline of the student’s free choice, etc., said Nadiia Liubomudrova, Head of the Department of Employee Training and Development.
Viktor Fursov, Head of the Department for Anti-Corruption Activities of Lviv Polytechnic, familiarized the participants of the webinar with the documents that regulate the activities of this Department at the University, informed where to address in case of manifestations of academic dishonesty, and answered the questions of the group curators.
After the webinar, participants were invited to take a survey with the opportunity to leave comments on what the most interests the students with whom these curators work.
– 23% of first-year curators took part in the survey. Every fifth of them was appointed for the first time. Almost 70% of curators organize or plan to organize various extracurricular activities, and almost 25% of curators believe that students should do it on their own, said Nadiia Liubomudrova. – It was also important to understand how familiar the curators are with the problems. More than 45% of curators indicated different problems voiced by first-year students. Most of all, this applies to adaptation to a large amount of educational material; ability to work with the VLE; receiving corporate email address; unsatisfactory condition of rooms in some dormitories, making up for classes missed due to health conditions; the possibility of transferring to a state funded form of education; problems with Internet access in the buildings of Lviv Polytechnic, etc. As it turned out, 91% of the interviewed curators answered that they solve most of the students’ problems on their own.
When discussing suggestions for improving the work of curators, most of them voiced the desire to properly evaluate such work: to add these hours to the main educational workload, to financially encourage them, or to add points to the ranking.
According to Nadiia Liubomudrova, most of the questions from the curators related to accommodation in dormitories, repair of the stairs between dormitories No. 8 and No. 10, and the work of the student clinic. Questions were also raised regarding the opportunities to participate in sports sections and physical education classes held at the Department of Physical Education. Special attention was paid to the organization of students’ meals, since all breaks last 15 minutes, and this time is not always enough to have time to eat and not be late for a class.