Abstract:

Universities are trying to develop various activities related to the approximation of study curricula to the needs of the labour market. These are primarily changes in existing curricula and the creation of new ones using the experience of industry specialists and inviting them to carry out planned activities in the form of lectures, seminars, laboratories or projects. In this area, however, there is a significant problem, involving the need to maintain a schedule for their implementation throughout the whole semester. Highly experienced employees are involved in projects that require frequent trips or meetings. Such a situation leads to the necessity to change the date of classes or lecturers and is not acceptable from the point of guarantee high quality of the educational process. To ensure contact between students and industry practitioners, shorter forms of classes are carried out as additional activities. These are one-time, 2-hour lectures or short series (2-3 meetings) of seminars focused on a particular technology or process.
The article presents the results of Computer Science students' assessment of short forms of activities carried out at Lublin University of Technology. In the study, the following research hypotheses were put to verification:
H1. CS students want to participate in additional, short classes conducted by practitioners from the industry.
H2. Students think that additional classes carried out by practitioners increase the quality of education.
H3. In student’s opinions practitioners from the industry have a lot of knowledge on the current topics of computer science.
H4. In student’s opinions industrial practitioners are able to pass on their knowledge to students.
H5. Classes implemented by practitioners made the students aware of the lack of knowledge and encouraged to take actions related to its acquisition.
The article presents the research methodology and outcomes. The final part of the study discusses conclusions resulting from verification of the research hypotheses.

Keywords:

Additional activities for students, academia involvement of industrial specialists, student’s evaluation.