Abstract:

Crisis phenomena affect society in almost all spheres. Although they usually have a negative impact on the society in some cases, they can have a positive effect on it in the form of various innovations and process improvements. The coronavirus-induced COVID-19 pandemic also had an impact on the teaching process in the Slovak Republic. Due to preventive measures to protect health and reduce the possibility of spreading coronavirus - disease COVID-19, the pedagogical process at the University of Žilina began to take place through self-study, distance or other appropriate form and assignments through e-learning. Almost all students had access to the Internet at home and a mobile phone with the Internet that they use too. To manage the situation within the measures, the advantage of distance learning proved to be advantageous, which was partially available and in this case was used significantly. The individual subjects are specific and required a different approach during this emergency. We will focus on teaching at two faculties of the university and their specifics in this paper. We pay special attention to the subject of professional practice at the Faculty of Security Engineering, Department of Crisis Management. Within this course, students had the opportunity to volunteer, which contributed to reducing the negative impact associated with the pandemic. In the article, we analyse the activities of students within the subjects and present the possibilities of innovation in the normal teaching process as well as in the case of other situation. Innovation will enable students to crisis management better prepared to deal with a variety of other crisis events.

Keywords:

Distance learning, COVID 19 pandemic, crisis management, volunteering.