CLOSING COMPETENCY GAPS USING E-LEARNING IN MULTIDISCIPLINARY MASTER’S STUDIES

Multidisciplinary Master’s studies linking computer science and environmental protection were prepared under the project “Mobile Application Development in Environment Monitoring - a New Program of Master Studies in English” (MADEM). The MADEM project is aimed at extending the educational offer of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Lublin University of Technology (LUT) by creating a new, multidisciplinary Master’s specialization in English. The prepared specialty in the field of computer science will educate students to build information systems, especially mobile applications, dedicated to environment monitoring with special consideration of monitoring threats, working with detecting sensors and safety issues.

The developed curriculum includes 23 subjects, most of which will be conducted in a traditional manner in the form of lectures, laboratories, classes, projects and seminars. It was assumed that 3 subjects will be fully conducted in the form of e-learning courses and the others involving traditional learning will provide students with didactic materials on the e-learning platform.

The developed multidisciplinary curriculum before approval was evaluated by external stakeholders from the IT industry and institutions dealing with environmental protection. The main issue emphasized by representatives of employers was the situation on the employment market concerning university graduates frequently lacking a uniform, sufficient level of key competencies in the area of computer science and environmental protection. In order to bridge, and eventually also close, the specified competency gaps six additional subjects in the form of complete e-learning courses were developed. The courses were designed to fill gaps in required competences.

The article presents the problem of education competency gaps, the developed solution, the list of e-learning courses provided in the study curriculum of the MADEM specialization and examples of their contents.