Five Latvian universities digitise civil protection course
The “Civil Protection” course is fully digitised for students at five Latvian universities. Students learn by watching videos, pictures and even playing computer games. And if a student needs help understanding something, or has a question, or needs to clarify technical details about lectures, they can contact Digni, a virtual assistant who knows everything about the course.
The digitised Civil Protection course is currently being taught in a test mode at the University of Latvia (LU), the Latvian University of Life Sciences and Technologies, Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences, RISEBA University of Appllied Sxiences and the Transport and Telecommunication Institute. It is still a hybrid model – lectures are face-to-face, but tests, study materials and examination papers are digital.
Our faculty selected the best content, the best videos to show to students in different situations that can be used in their studies.
But on the other hand, we have created a virtual assistant Digne, which helps in this civil protection course and, based on large language models, is able to answer all kinds of questions about civil protection,” said Signe Bāliņa, Director of the LU Innovation Centre “LUMIC”.
The “Civil Protection” course is also taught by playing the computer game “Minecraft”. In one situation, students create a civil disaster, while in another they solve it. Teachers also have an easier learning process, as they have a translation tool that they can train themselves. In it, the trainer will be able to use the terminology he/she uses.
“It is often the case that different terms, especially terms that are specific to one or another field of science, are translated differently by different faculty members and different terminology is used,” said Bāliņa.
In December, students and lecturers will be asked to evaluate the new facilities and make suggestions on how to improve them.
“I think, above all, to try to be as open as possible to these technologies, not to try to resist, not to try to see or, well, to sort of accentuate these risks that undoubtedly exist in the use of these technologies.
But rather to find ways to integrate these technologies, to use them better in the learning process,” said Kaspars Kauliņš, Business Development Director at SIA “Tilde”.
The project is designed to make studies in Latvian universities more modern and to boost the digital capabilities of Latvian universities. It cost 2 million EUR and is supported by the European Social Fund.
Translated from source: LSM.lv
Project DIGITEKA