Dean Rakočević: On the Faculty of Civil Engineering Best Tests Conducted in the Classroom
"Given the nature of the material, type and content of pre-examination tests and number of students, to the extent that particularity of studies at our faculty allows it, the Faculty of Civil Engineering is ready for online pre-examination tests, as well as for final exams at the University of Montenegro , when there are conditions for that, considering the current situation of the pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus, and in accordance with the decision of the Senate UMNE “, as Dean of this Faculty, Marina Rakočević, PhD, says.
She adds that curricula of the Faculty of Civil Engineering provide two types of pre-examination tests: colloquia and continuous monitoring of students' work during the semester, through preparation of semester, seminar and graphic works.
"From the very beginning of online teaching, with intensive work of both students and teaching staff, and constant electronic communication, the production and defense of semester, seminar and graphic papers was successfully organized, which was previously started in the first weeks of the semester, in classical classes," Rakočević states.
She points out that, having in mind the number of students and nature of colloquium of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, with mostly written computational and graphic tasks in combination with oral testing, for most subjects it is not possible to organize quality, authoritative and valid tests of this type but only in the traditional way - in classroom, when there are conditions for it.
"In a certain number of subjects, mostly in specialist studies, with a small number of students, we decided on online colloquia and we are already successfully conducting them. It is mostly an online written test by e-mail (at the time when the test is scheduled, the teacher delivers assignments to students by e-mail; students have a time limit (e.g. two, three hours ...) within which they should send their works to the teacher by e-mail (scanned or photographed), with a statement that they worked independently); in the virtual Zoom classroom (in a way that the teacher / associate visually accompanies the students while doing the colloquium (on paper or on the computer), with the delivery of papers by e-mail, as in the previous option); through tests on Moodle platform ", Dean Rakočević explains.
Online taking the colloquium, she adds, is mostly organized on subjects where colloquiums carry up to 50% of the total number of points, with exam being taken in smaller groups.
"More comprehensive colloquia, as well as colloquia in subjects with a large number of students, or those for which the curricula provide a combination of written and oral examinations, and for which online examinations are not rational, neither for students nor teachers, will be organized in the classical way, in real classrooms, when the conditions are met, immediately prior final exams. At the same time, in cooperation with student representatives, a schedule of all tests will be carefully prepared in order to provide optimal possible conditions for students, " Dean Rakočević announced.
The teaching process at the Faculty of Civil Engineering continues to take place online, via email, platforms and applications Skype, Viber, Zoom and Moodle.
"The fourteenth week of classes is ongoing, and the eighth week since classes are conducted online, and we can say that we are satisfied with what has been achieved, of course to the extent possible in given circumstances. Although we believe that classroom rights and direct contact, i.e. interaction between students and teaching staff, are difficult to replace in a quality educational process, it is obvious that both students and employees of the Faculty of Civil Engineering have made great efforts to ensure that the teaching process runs smoothly and with undiminished quality ", Dean Rakočević believes.
She emphasized that teachers, associates and students went through a period of adjustment to the new circumstances together.
"Week by week, with the help and suggestions of students, whose response was not less in relation to the conditions of classical teaching, we adjusted and improved the ways of presenting teaching materials to the requirements and needs of students. Although the same type of online teaching cannot be applied to all subjects as well as to all levels of study, we were able to find applicable models which required great commitment from all participants.
"Together, we faced the challenge of online teaching and we believe that we have mastered it properly, and that this will confirm the success of our students both in the pre-exam knowledge tests and in the final exams," Rakočević concludes.