Teaching students of Altai State University on the programs of the "Digital Department": the tutor's view

Shchetinina Anna Sergeevna PhD in History Associate Professor, Department of National History, Altai State University 656049, Russia, Altai Krai, Barnaul, Lenin str. 61, office 312 anyash83@mail.ru Other publications by this author

The national program "Digital Economy of the Russian Federation"^[1] and the projects that are being implemented as part of its implementation have set new tasks for higher institutions of Russia. One of these tasks was to teach students new IT competencies as part of the implementation of the Digital Departments project by the participants of Priority 2030 ^[2]. Digital Departments is a joint large-scale project of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation, which aims to provide the economy with specialists with IT competencies.

Despite the fact that the project is quite young (it has been implemented since 2022), to date, the accumulated experience and problems of its participants have already been reflected in publications reflecting the experience of developing and implementing additional professional retraining programs by universities in this area. The authors describe the features and difficulties of developing programs, the specifics of their content, methods and technologies used to teach IT competencies to students of different fields of study, etc. [3-6, etc.]. It is worth noting that the experience in this area is much weaker for humanitarian areas than, for example, for technical ones.

The problems of implementation, implementation and promotion of programs of the digital department, the specifics of working with students have become an urgent topic for many authors. The publications trace the difficulties and problems common to universities participating in the Digital Department project related to the involvement of students, their motivation to study in IT-profile programs ^{[5, 7, etc.]}. Following the results of the first year of work of digital departments, a collection "The first results of digital departments. A collection of successfully implemented projects" ^[8], which summarizes the first successes of the implementation of programs by both teachers and students using the example of 28 universities. In general, analyzing the available publications, we can say that the experience of solving the problems under consideration, as well as the first successes in the implementation of the "Digital Department" are also presented mainly for technical areas.

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Studying at the digital department gives students the opportunity to receive additional qualifications in the IT profile free of charge as part of the development of the DPP PP developed by the participating universities of the project. The number of students who have received additional IT qualifications at digital departments is an indicator of the federal project "Development of human resources in the IT industry": on its basis, the university participating in Priority 2030 has its own mandatory indicator.

Full-time and part-time students from 2-3 bachelor's and specialist's courses, as well as undergraduates studying in areas not related to IT, are allowed to study at the programs of digital departments.

The federal project defines two target groups of students:

1.                Students in specialties and areas of training that are not related to the IT field.

2.                Students in the specialties and areas of training in the IT sector.

At Altai State University (AltSU), the Digital Department project has been implemented since 2022 as the Digital Up School for the Development of Digital Competencies. The management is carried out by the first vice-rector for Academic Affairs, the head of the Department of digitalization of educational trajectories and the head of the School for the Development of Digital Competencies "Digital Up". The digital department also includes the directors of the institutes implementing the DPP PP, the authors and teachers of the corresponding DPP PP ^[9].

In 2023-2024. The University implements seven DPP PP, with a volume of 252 hours each. The training is carried out remotely on electronic courses on the Moodle platform. 20 qualified teachers, as well as 14 partner IT companies, participate in the implementation of the programs ^[9]. Upon completion of their studies, students receive a diploma of professional retraining.

Competence development is monitored by the Autonomous Non-profit Organization of Higher Education Innopolis University, on the basis of which there is an assessment center for conducting an independent assessment of the level of formation of IT competencies among students under the programs of the Digital Departments project ^[10]. An independent assessment is conducted three times a year in the form of testing – entrance at the beginning of the learning process, intermediate in the middle and final at the end.

Tutors from among teachers or teaching and support staff are appointed at AltSU to monitor student learning and support the educational process at each institute. Tutors carry out weekly monitoring of academic performance based on downloads from e-courses, tracking the digital footprint of students, as well as their timely assessment of the development of competencies, which is conducted by Innopolis. In addition, the tasks of tutors include collecting, maintaining and storing documentation/personal files of students; assistance in student interaction with teachers of DPP PP programs; reminders of deadlines for completing tasks on the Moodle platform, etc.

Students of the Institute of History and International Relations (IIMO) are enrolled in programs for students in areas of training that are not related to the IT field. For this target group of DPP PP, according to the "Requirements for the implementation of professional retraining programs of the Digital Departments project", it is envisaged to form digital competencies in the field of creating algorithms and computer programs suitable for practical use ^{[11, p.2]}.

In 2023-2024, AltSU students studying in areas of training not related to the IT field could choose one of the following programs ^[9]:

1. Digital design and the basics of website layout.

During the development of the program, professional competencies are formed: PC-1 "Performs the layout of the project" and PC-2 "Applies programming languages to solve professional tasks".

Those who have completed the training are awarded the qualification of "Graphic User Interface Developer".

2. Development of business applications on the 1C: Enterprise platform.

During the development of the program, professional competencies are formed: PC-1 "Finalizes configurations and modules of IS (information systems) of enterprises" and PC-2 "Uses common ERP systems".

Those who have completed the training are awarded the qualification "Application developer on the 1C: Enterprise platform".

3.                 Applied data analysis in Python.

During the development of the program, professional competencies are formed: PC-1 "Applies programming languages to solve professional problems" and PC-2 "Applies artificial intelligence and machine learning".

Those who have completed the training are awarded the qualification of "Data Researcher".

In 2023/24, 115 students were enrolled in the programs of the digital department at IIMO. Enrollment was conducted for the 4th year of the bachelor's degree in all areas of training at IIMO and for the 2nd year of the master's degree in all areas except "Applied Informatics". Thus, among those enrolled in the programs of the digital department are students of all bachelor's and master's degree programs (except those studying in the master's degree in Applied Informatics): "History", "Documentation and Archival Science", "Museology and protection of cultural and Natural heritage sites", "Foreign Regional Studies", as well as "International relationships."

When enrolling, students chose one of the three proposed programs themselves. The most popular program for them for the second year is "Digital Design and the basics of website layout", which 69 people have signed up for. The students were distributed approximately equally for the other two programs (Fig.1).

Figure 1

The choice of DPP PP programs by students and students

(number of people)

The students' choice of programs was carried out in different ways. Despite the opportunity to study in detail each of the proposed programs on the official website of the School of Digital Competencies, students often found it difficult to choose and went to those programs where their classmates enrolled. Interviews conducted with students before and during enrollment in the program showed:

· Many people signed up for "Digital design and the basics of website layout" because "at least something is close and understandable from the title and description for the humanities." Some of these students lose motivation very quickly in the learning process and actually stop doing tasks themselves (without constant supervision). About a third of the students enrolled in this program made a choice consciously, out of interest.

·                  According to them, some students enrolled in the program "Development of business applications on the 1C: Enterprise platform" using the familiar name of the program (for example, students studying in the field of training "Documentation and Archival Science" know that 1C has an EDMS, an electronic archive on this platform, etc.; students in the field of training "Museology and protection of cultural and natural heritage sites" are aware of the "Museum" module). In general, however, no more than one third of all enrolled students also made a conscious, purposeful choice.

· The situation with the students' choice of the program "Applied Data Analysis in Python" is slightly different. Many students are familiar with this programming language, so they signed up for this program consciously. However, some did it "because it's fashionable", wanting to "be on trend".

All these nuances when students choose which DPP PP program to study in, in the future directly affect their academic performance, which is one of the most basic problems for humanities students. In addition to the listed features of the program selection, academic performance is also influenced by students' lack of understanding of the need and importance of obtaining IT competencies for the humanities and, as a result, lack of interest and motivation. The institutes themselves are engaged in solving this problem, holding meetings, psychological conversations, explanations, etc., which justify the relevance of obtaining digital competencies. Additional activities are also aimed at solving problems with low motivation, which are carried out by teachers of the digital department throughout the year. For example, one of such events for students of the program "Digital Design and the basics of website layout" was a working meeting called "To create a cool website, you don't have to be an IT specialist", held in December 2023 with the participation of representatives of IT companies ^[12].

Another urgent problem is the weak or missing connection with the content of students' scientific activities and with the disciplines within the framework of their development of basic educational programs. At the time of enrollment, the students with whom we work within the digital department already have a well-established scientific interest, the topics of course or final qualifying papers, in most cases it is not possible to link them with assignments or topics in the digital department. The same can be said about the disciplines that students study in the framework of the main program.

The problem here is not that the proposed technologies and methods are not suitable for research in the field of history, museology, archival science and other humanities, but that students already have topics that they started working on before enrolling in the digital department, and the possibility of applying competencies in the field of creating algorithms and computer programs suitable for practical use are often limited for them.

Only a small number of students can relate their scientific work to what they study in the programs of the digital department. As surveys and conversations with IIMO students have shown, the program "Digital Design and the basics of website layout" finds the greatest use. Students studying in such areas as, for example, "Museology and protection of cultural and natural heritage sites", "Documentation and Archival Science" plan to develop websites or exhibition pages, an online school landing page or a museum guide based on their acquired competencies.

The proportion of students who have an idea of how to link their scientific activities with competencies in the programs "Development of business applications on the 1C: Enterprise platform" and "Applied data Analysis in Python" is even smaller. The first of them has a very narrow focus. Students of museology and documentary archivists, as the survey showed, consider it possible to create accounting catalogs and programs in the personnel field, in the field of systematization and accounting of the results of scientific research on the 1C: Enterprise platform. As for the program "Applied Data Analysis in Python", the main problem for students here is which data sets to work with, where to get them.

In general, analyzing the features of teaching students and teachers in the programs of the Digital Department, their personal perception of the possibilities of applying the acquired competencies in professional activities, it can be noted that most of them face difficulties understanding the content of the disciplines themselves, and where and how it can be useful for them both when mastering the basic educational program and in future professional activity. Similar problems in the implementation of the Digital Department project are typical for many universities, especially when teaching students in the humanities. Based on the fact that this project is still quite young, in the first years of its implementation, universities have just begun to gain experience. In the process of teaching students, certain difficulties, which were discussed above, have become obvious, and participating universities are gradually only beginning to understand how to cope with them. In general, it can be noted that the Digital Department project has quite interesting prospects for teaching students of humanities new IT competencies. Despite the fact that many students at the time of mastering both the basic educational program and the additional one (within the framework of the Digital Departments project) They do not yet have a clear idea of where they will go to work, as representatives of humanitarian fields of training, while having IT competencies in the field of creating algorithms and computer programs suitable for practical use, they will receive a solid advantage in employment. In recent years, there has been a demand for such specialists, for example, in the museum and archival fields, in government agencies, in educational institutions, etc.