The pandemic crisis revealed the inevitability of digitization of the higher education system and showed that the borrowing of the practices of other states can no longer be applied as a temporary solution in times of crisis. Moldova needs a systemic and sustainable approach in this regard. “The higher education institutions should be that engine by which we educate graduates, on the other hand, and promote digitization, including in society, on the other hand,” Dinu Țurcanu, pro-rector of the Moldova Technical University (UTM), stated in a public event titled “Digitalization of university education: between challenges and necessities”, IPN reports.
A modern digital library that will include a number of digital services will start to work at UTM on September 1. There was developed a platform that will be relaunched at the start of September, with electronic support for lectures, for practical lessons and workshops, including with interactive digital activities for students. “We develop continuously. When you work in an environment in which the young people are fond of what information technology means, it is easier to implement it. The students put this pressure on the subsequent development of new services. That’s why this implementation should continue,” stated Dinu Țurcanu.
According to Sergiu Corlat, pro-rector of the State University of Moldova (USM), digitalization enables to break time and space barriers in terms of distance and offers more freedom in the organization of educational activities both for students and teachers.
“Educational resources are the trump card of digitalization. We can use both internal digital resources, such as university libraries, and external ones and those distributed freely and offered for money. Now the students have access to a lot of resources and the role of the teacher changes in this variety of resources. Digitalization leads not only to an increase in the volume of the resources we possess, but also to a change in the teaching method. The teacher’s role is now to primarily guide the students so that these complete the course,” stated Sergiu Corlat.
Digitalization, as any other technological process, hides a series of dangers. “One can fail to choose the really valuable information from among this very large volume of information. This problem can be overcome if the people realize that digitalization does not man substitution of the educational process,” noted Sergiu Corlat.
Among the solutions for effective digitization of the university system are the purchase of new equipment and the search for resources (software, information systems). Both UTM and USM have teams that develop own internal information systems.
The public event was staged as part of the program #StagiuIPRE2022 that forms part of the project of the Institute for European Policies and Reforms “Change starts with you! – #BetheChange: Young people for the Europeanization of the Republic of Moldova” that is implemented in cooperation with the Hanns Seidel Foundation in Moldova and with financial support from the German Federal Foreign Office.
