KSU Team Presented the Results of the First 6 Months of the DigiUni Project
The team of Kherson State University took part in the monitoring meeting of the Ukrainian partners of the EU Erasmus+ DigiUni project: Digital University - Open Ukrainian Initiative. The event was organized by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.
The meeting was moderated by Serhii Shkabko, Head of the Expert Group on European Integration of the Directorate for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.
The Monitoring Group, which was established pursuant to a decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, includes representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science, the National Erasmus+ Office in Ukraine & HERE team, the EU Delegation to Ukraine, and the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. Kseniia Smyrnova, a representative of the project coordinator, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, made a presentation.
This was followed by a kind of check-up of the first 6 months of the ambitious four-year project to create an open digital educational ecosystem. Many Ukrainian and international partners are involved in the process.
Kherson State University is responsible for the dissemination of the project and had a presentation of the results of the work package that we are implementing together with Mariupol State University, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, and Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Poland).
“For us, digitalization is not a theoretical issue, we started on this path in 1999 when we launched the Information and Analytical System (IAS), which allowed us to moderate personnel and financial issues. Later, the KSUonline platform appeared, where all educational content was posted. Now we are actively developing the university's analog of DIIA - the KSU24 service, which allows us to administer educational and business processes. And during the occupation of Kherson, we transferred all this digital infrastructure to external servers to be able to continue working steadily. That is why the idea of creating an educational platform is close to us, and we consciously participate in the project,” said Rector of KSU Oleksandr Spivakovskiy.
In his speech, he noted that only six of the 48 months provided for the project have passed, which is one-eighth of the total time.
Oleksandr Spivakovskiy presented the progress and outlined the tasks that have been completed within the DigiUni project:
- First, he drew attention to the final stage of preparation of the DigiUni Dissemination Strategy. The draft has been uploaded for review, and changes are being made based on the wishes of the partners. A new version with edits will be uploaded soon.
- Second. Together with our partners, we developed and launched the DigiUni website, which is the main center of information and resources of our project, available in Ukrainian and English. We also created pages and profiles in various social networks. These platforms are crucial for disseminating information and interacting with our community. In synergy with the information resources of all partners, we are able to disseminate information to our target audiences.
- The project's YouTube channel is being created and the first promotional video about the project is being prepared.
- Third. A communication system with all partners is being established, which allows us to learn about and publicize events that take place within each work project.
“I am proud that the team of Kherson State University took an active part in all trainings and events, with university representatives attending almost every event in person. And after each one, we held internal meetings and approved reports on the results of the mobility at a meeting of the university's Academic Council.
I am grateful to my colleagues, Vice-Rectors Alla Tsapiv and Oleksandr Lemeshchuk, and Head of the International Initiatives and Project Management Department, Yevheniia Revenko, for their detailed comments on our actions within the work package. We practice a team approach. There is a corresponding order at the university that legalizes the role of everyone, so each specialist is responsible for his or her own area. We are grateful to our partners and the Monitoring Group for their useful advice on dissemination tools. We will take them into account.
Today's meeting showed that the young large-scale project has some problematic issues. But the fact that we discussed them openly asked questions, and got answers is valuable.
In my opinion, it would be right to approve certain corporate rules, for example, regarding the mandatory recording of all work activities of partners. I also agree with the need to strengthen the communication component and collectively agree on systemic issues, such as the configuration of the digital platform, the structure and content of the content...
We worked for 7 hours with a short break, which allowed the representatives of the Monitoring Group to dive deeper into the issues and provide their recommendations at the end. We are grateful to Svitlana Shytikova, Head of the National Erasmus+ Office in Ukraine & HERE team, and colleagues from the Ministry of Education and Science and the Ministry of Digital Transformation for a thorough analysis of the work packages for their confidence that we can overcome all difficulties to implement the project, which is essentially historical and important in the context of Ukraine's European integration,” summed up Oleksandr Spivakovskiy.
Press Center of KSU