Abstract:

The new reality of the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the usual standards of the educational environment. Social distancing has made its own adjustments in the management of student projects, the writing of theses and qualifications of students of all levels. At the same time, the formulation and testing of design hypotheses still requires operational verification in real time. As a response to the challenges of testing hypotheses, project laboratories (PL) have been introduced into the structure of project education at the Ural Federal University (UrFU). The purpose of PL is to eliminate the limitations in conducting research and experiments in the context of distance learning.

Within the framework of the UrFU project laboratory for remote sensing of the Earth, five projects were defensed in 2020-2021, which proved the necessity and effectiveness of the technology. Students retained the ability to create a product to solve real problems, while developing soft skills such as critical thinking, communication, responsibility, and the ability to work independently and as a team.

Keywords:

Project learning tool, COVID-2019 pandemic, project-based learning.