Abstract:

New problems arisen from the remote learning at police and technical universities during the COVID era are considered. The scope is to identify and solve specific problems of the theoretical subjects, the practical subjects and professional practice. Special attention is given to new methods of examination and assessment of students using online tools.

In technical and police sciences there is very quick development both in commercial sector and in education. It leads to fast obsolescence of textbooks, scripts, and other study materials in these specific fields. Before the COVID era this effect could be successfully compensated in the pedagogic process by the face-to-face performance of an expert lecturer with good presentation skills who is acquainted with the most recent knowledge in his field of study. However, by the impossibility of personal contact during the social distancing period, the impact of the lecturer´s skill is more or less limited depending on the chosen form of remote learning. These facts result in the necessity of the enhanced study materials actualization and even form modification. A set of recommendations for lecturers, that lead to better adaptation of study materials for online pedagogic process, is proposed. Tips and tricks for giving an online lecture using Microsoft Office are included.

Education in technical and police sciences includes theoretical subjects and practical ones, together with certain professional practice. During the COVID era the incompletion of the professional practice or attendance of practical subjects were mostly excused. The cooperation with the commercial sector was widely restricted. Potential consequences of the lack of practical experience of graduates are assessed in our work. It is suggested to complete the professional practice and practical subjects additionally for the COVID-era graduates. For the future it is proposed to enhance wider partnerships between universities and the commercial sector, for example, by establishing new incubators or center of excellence. Problems with the practical subjects result in lack of shooting practice and lack of active police cynology. Therefore, wider deployment of simulators is recommended.

The whole educational process is completed by some sort of examination. Certain ideas for remote examination forms with different levels of applicability in small or big group of students and according to the subject-type are presented. Two different approaches to online examination are compared, namely test with multiple choice questions and oral examination. Both approaches are evaluated both from students’ and teachers’ points of view in the means of objectivity, complexity, technical difficulty, and archiving. The output of questionnaires is analyzed by the methods of mathematical statistics. The problematic of the examination output archiving is emphasized. A special attention is given to the final state exams, which require quorumable committee. The risk that the committee will be not quorumable was real even before the COVID era. Nowadays, with the rise of available online tools, this problem seems to be partially mitigated. Some newly identified problems linked to the online examination are pointed out.

Keywords:

Police, COVID era, remote learning, remote teaching, online examination.