Abstract:

Changes occurring in the production sphere determine changes in the requirements for the quality of professional training of technical universities graduates in the aspect of mastering professional competencies, the most important of which is the design competence. In the professional activity of bachelors of road construction it is a defining characteristic that demonstrates readiness and ability to effectively implement existing knowledge of design theory in road construction, skills of design activities, experience in individual and collective design and application of industry software products to ensure the quality of roads and highways, road safety.

However, the analysis of practice shows that University graduates come to the field of road construction being insufficiently competent in the field of design. Universities are faced with the task of finding effective means to eliminate this disadvantage. The digital educational environment of a technical University has a significant potential for this in three aspects — motivational, educational and technological. Effective implementation of this potential for the formation of design competence in bachelors of road construction provides the creation of a set of pedagogical conditions in the educational process: giving the educational process of the University a value-motivational orientation that provides incentives for students to master professional activities in the field of road construction; ensuring the integration of educational, training, professional and social design, aimed at mastering students 'skills of applying knowledge of the theory of design activities in practice; students' experience in professional design activities by participating in the activities of design and research groups created by University teachers and employers.

Experimental testing of theoretically based pedagogical conditions was carried out on the basis of the Volga branch of the Moscow automobile and road state technical University. 40 students of the experimental group and 37 students of the control group took part in the experiment. In the educational process of the University the theoretical and practical materials we used (author's work programs of the disciplines "Descriptive geometry and engineering graphics", "Computer-aided design of roads", "Design in the CAD environment "COMPASS", diagnostic tools for assessing the level of components of design competence). The experiment showed that the introduction of pedagogical conditions contributes to the successful solution of the problem under study. This conclusion was made as a result of a comparative analysis of data from the initial and final diagnostics of the design competence level of students in the experimental and control groups.

Keywords:

Design competence, bachelors, road construction, digital educational environment.