Educational materials
All lecturers and students have access to the Educational Portal of the AVN information system (avn.kaiold). In that portal, under the Teaching and Methodological Complex section, lecturers have uploaded teaching and methodological materials for each discipline. These materials include: the syllabus, lecture notes, practical assignments, module test questions, reading lists, a glossary, methodological guidelines for students' independent work, etc. The coverage of the AVN educational portal with teaching materials is 70%. Lecturers continue to work on populating the portal with methodological materials.
Tools and submission of work
Teaching also uses applications such as Zoom, Google Classroom, Google Sites, the WhatsApp messenger and others. Students submit independent work and completed assignments via the AVN educational portal, to lecturers' e-mail, via WhatsApp and other applications. If a student cannot submit independent work or a completed assignment electronically, they may write the work by hand and send photos of it to the lecturer via WhatsApp. The schedule for submitting independent work is set by the lecturer for each discipline. Under the current circumstances, lecturers do not restrict the time of day when a student may submit independent work (a student may submit at any time); only a final deadline for receipt of the work is established.
Adjustment of practical training
To optimise the educational process, adjustments were made to the current schedule concerning the completion of various types of student practical training. Thus, previously established dates for academic, industrial and qualification practices were postponed to a later time, i.e. after the completion of theoretical instruction.
Student status update
The status update of students was carried out in the first week after the quarantine announcement (from 16 to 20 March), clarifying students' locations and their ability to connect to the global Internet and access online resources.
Organisational work and governance
At the I. Abdraimov Kyrgyz Aviation Institute, weekly online meetings of the administrative and managerial staff are held to address issues related to conducting the educational process, teaching and methodological work in distance learning format, and organisational matters concerning the institute’s administrative services during the emergency. On 16 April 2020, an online meeting of the Teaching and Methodological Council was held to consider issues of optimising the educational process, quality control of education, preparation for the summer examination session, conduct of all types of practice, and final state attestation in the conditions of distance learning.
Monitoring and attendance
Monitoring and control of the educational process are carried out by the Academic Office in accordance with the approved schedule of classes. There have been no missed classes. Lecturers inform the Academic Office about logging into the portal via the administrative WhatsApp group «Дежурный администратор». Subject and curator groups have also been created in WhatsApp by lecturers and curators through which the educational process is monitored. A reporting form for curators has been developed and implemented; it is sent daily at the end of the day electronically to the Academic Office to summarise attendance and group activity. Overall attendance across the institute is approximately 70–85%.
Methodological support and resources
Methodological assistance is provided to lecturers and students in organising classes in the distance learning format. Instructions have been prepared for lecturers and students on using the AVN educational portal, with which both lecturers and students have been familiarised. Video seminars for lecturers were organised on how to populate the educational portal with materials remotely, on the rules for entering current marks into the portal, on creating a personal site using Google Sites, and so on. In addition, with the support of the IT and technical maintenance department, lecturers produce video lectures which are posted on the institute’s YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZXnnLEM59r6Am_3myqtP7A/videos).
Additional initiatives
To recognise and promote talented and capable lecturers, leading modern educators, their creative pursuits, and to share best practices and effective methods for using modern educational technologies, a virtual contest for lecturers «Best Multimedia Materials in Education» was announced. Cultural and educational work continues at the institute: students supported the Ministry of Education and Science of the Kyrgyz Republic’s action «The whole family reads». The Student Council produced a social clip «Stay Home», and students record video clips describing how their studies proceed remotely. For the 75th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, a virtual contest was announced at the I. Abdraimov Kyrgyz Aviation Institute in which both students and lecturers can participate (http://kaiold/2020/04/10/конкурс-к-75-летию-вов).
Cooperation with providers
With the assistance of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Kyrgyz Republic, an agreement was reached between the I. Abdraimov Kyrgyz Aviation Institute and the company Megacom to connect the teaching staff to the «Distance Education» project with a bonus package (60 GB of free internet traffic, 4,000 minutes of on-network calls, 40 minutes of off-network calls). In addition, Megacom provided the institute with the free VKS.Megacom.kg platform for video conferencing. Negotiations with Megacom are ongoing to provide students with free access to the websites through which the institute’s educational process is conducted.