Internet educational resources aimed at expansion of innovative opportunities for future social workers

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Internet educational resources aimed at expansion of innovative opportunities for future social workers

B. Savelchuk

N.M. Andriichuk

D.D. Bybyk

Annotation

The article is devoted to the actual problem of studying the importance of online education resources for expanding the prospects of attracting future specialists to innovative activities in the field of social work. The necessity of using online courses in the context of self-educational activities of students as a characteristic feature of blended learning in the higher education system is proved. The expediency of mass open online courses for improval of the effectiveness of training social workers is determined. Attention is focused on the fact that online courses help to expand the opportunities for attracting students to provide innovative social services to various categories of clients, thereby acting as a factor of enriching their professional experience and increasing the resource potential for training social workers. The purpose of the article is to reveal the prospects of attracting students to provide innovative social services and opportunities to enrich their professional experience and increase the resource potential of training social workers through the use of mass open online courses. To achieve the goal and solve the problems of the study, theoretical, empirical and statistical methods of data synthesis and processing were used, the features of enriching professional experience in the field of social work were analyzed, and the possibilities of increasing the resource potential of training social workers through the use of mass open online courses were clarified. The importance of self-educational activities of students receiving education in the field of Social Work and the heterogeneity of online courses are confirmed. It is proved that expanding the resource potential of training social workers will help to attract future social workers to provide innovative social services to various categories of clients. The novelty of the study is to determine the prospects and opportunities of mass open online courses to expand the resource potential of training social workers for innovation and meet the self-educational needs of students.

Keywords: mass open online course, self-educational activities, innovations in social work, resource potential, training of social workers, involvement in innovation activities.

Інтернет-освітні ресурси, спрямовані на розширення інноваційних можливостей майбутніх соціальних працівників

І.Б. Савельчук, Н.М. Андрійчук, Д.Д. Бибик

Анотація

educational internet student

Стаття присвячена актуальній проблемі вивчення значення освітніх Інтернет-ресурсів для розширення перспектив залучення майбутніх фахівців до інноваційної діяльності у сфері соціальної роботи. Доведено необхідність використання онлайн курсів у контексті самоосвітньої діяльності студентів як характерної риси змішаного навчання в системі вищої освіти. Визначено доцільність масових відкритих онлайн курсів для підвищення ефективності навчання соціальних працівників. Акцентується увага на тому, що онлайн курси сприяють розширенню можливостей для залучення студентів до надання інноваційних соціальних послуг різним категоріям клієнтів, тим самим виступають фактором збагачення їх професійного досвіду та збільшення ресурсного потенціалу підготовки соціальних працівників. Метою статті є розкриття перспектив залучення студентів до надання інноваційних соціальних послуг та можливостей збагатити свій професійний досвід та збільшити ресурсний потенціал підготовки соціальних працівників завдяки використанню масових відкритих онлайн курсів. Для досягнення мети та вирішення завдань дослідження були використані теоретичні, емпіричні та статистичні методи синтезу та обробки даних, проаналізовані особливості збагачення професійного досвіду у галузі соціальної роботи та можливості розширення ресурсного потенціалу навчання соціальних працівників за допомогою масових відкритих онлайн курсів. Підтверджено важливість самоосвітньої діяльності студентів, які здобувають освіту в галузі соціальної роботи, та неоднорідність онлайн курсів. Доведено, що розширення ресурсного потенціалу підготовки соціальних працівників допоможе залучити майбутніх соціальних працівників до надання інноваційних соціальних послуг різним категоріям клієнтів. Новизна дослідження полягає у визначенні перспектив та можливостей масових відкритих онлайн курсів для розширення ресурсного потенціалу підготовки соціальних працівників до інновацій та задоволення потреб самоосвіти студентів.

Ключові слова: масові відкриті онлайн курси, самоосвітня діяльність, інновації в соціальній роботі, ресурсний потенціал, навчання соціальних працівників, залучення до інноваційної діяльності.

Introduction of the issue

The current state of social sphere reform, the need to develop innovative models for providing social services for various categories of Ukraine's population, the existence of inconsistencies between the needs of social sphere clients and the capabilities of State Social Policy make it necessary to train competent, qualified, creative social workers. Social challenges and risks of Ukrainian society put forward new requirements for future social specialists even at the stage of studying at the University. For these reasons, the need to train specialists for innovative professional activities is actualized, which is caused by transformations of the sphere of social work in Ukraine in the conditions of modern globalizing socio-cultural trends.

The search of new opportunities to introduce innovations for the effectiveness of training social workers for professional activities in the field of social work is carried out taking into account the social significance of the effectiveness of innovative activities of social workers, which is ensured through the integration of resources, their activation and interaction. Since the process of creating and implementing of innovations is closely related to the development of innovative activity of people, updating their innovative potential, the enrichment of its resource availability becomes an absolutely legitimate factor of improving the effectiveness of training social workers. Therefore, targeted training of social workers for innovative activities in the field of social work is a priority task of higher education, and identifying various aspects of providing such training makes it possible to implement it and expand the professional experience of students.

Current state of the issue

The legal framework of the theory and practice of social work in the European community is represented by the strategic documents of the International Association of Social Work schools (IASSW) and the International Association of social workers (IFSW) ratified in Ukraine, such as "global standards for the education and training of the social work profession" [1], "World priorities of social work and social development: commitments to action" [2], "Global definition of social work" [3]. According to the definition of the EU Social Innovation Committee [4: 21], combining resource opportunities and cooperation is considered a priority for solving social problems. For the production of social innovations, it is mandatory to create a favorable "natural environment" thanks to the tools for building such a space (incubators, hubs, forums, competitions and research methodologies: testing and measuring influence, etc.) [4: 21]. Social innovations as consciously organized innovations or new phenomena in the practice of social work that arise at a certain stage of society development in accordance with changing social conditions, undoubtedly need to be provided with available resources for their successful implementation.

Theoretical analysis of literature sources and the study of the practice of reorganizing self-education activities of future social specialists have shown the importance of creating a system to support self-education throughout life (M. Gibbons, and G. Phillips) [5], determining the personal and social significance of self-education for future social workers to update and enrich professional knowledge, develop emotional and volitional mechanisms for overcoming difficulties (N. Borisenko, I. Hrytsenko, V. Denysenko, and N. Sydorenko [6]), the ratio of types and forms of classroom and extracurricular educational and social-educational activities (O. Lisovets [7], G. Slozanska [8], D. Bybyk [9], I. Savelchuk [10; 11]), creating organizational and pedagogical conditions for use of information and communication technologies and formation of ICT competence of future social workers (I. Artemenko [12], L. Ditkovska [13]). The analysis of scientific sources gives grounds to assert that over the past decade, the importance of massive open online course has been updated in the works of researchers in various scientific fields, discussions about the relevance and legality of using online courses in teaching certain disciplines in the higher education system are unfolding.

Aim of research

The purpose of the article is to reveal the prospects of attracting students to provide innovative social services and opportunities to enrich their professional experience and increase the resource potential of training social workers through the use of mass open online courses. The task of the article is to determine the prospects and opportunities of mass open online courses to expand the resource potential of training social workers for innovation and meet the self- educational needs of students.

Research methods

To solve the problems of our study we used a set of theoretical, empirical and statistical methods: a) theoretical: analysis of legal and methodological support of the process of training social workers; study, analysis and generalization of scientific and methodological literature on the issues of innovation in the field of social work; b) empirical: scientific observation, questionnaires, study and generalization of the experience of attracting students to provide social services to different categories of clients; c) statistical: quantitative and qualitative analysis of data processing of research results, systematization and grouping of data by essential features.

Results and discussion

The impact of innovations on the processes taking place in society and their relationship with the need to improve the quality of life of socially vulnerable segments of the population make the problem of training specialists to develop and implement innovations in the practice of social work extremely urgent. Innovative activity of social institutions, services and public organizations is the development of new, better social services to the population, which provide an increase in the efficiency of social work by combining resource opportunities for further introduction of innovative areas of Social Work and dissemination of new social services.

That is why the innovative activity of social specialists is aimed at solving the social problems of modern society, where the development and implementation of innovative models of social work should improve the quality of social services by combining resource opportunities and expanding them. However, the training of specialists for the introduction of innovative models of social work cannot be carried out by a simple combination of "traditions and innovations” in the system of professional training of social workers.

In order to update the system of providing social services to the population, according to the practice of training social specialists, each higher education institution tries to create opportunities for the use of information and communication technologies that cause the transition from traditional to promising areas of educational and self- educational activities of students, especially in mixed learning.

At the same time, the organization of self-educational work of future social workers should be "adapted" to mixed learning and be radically revised in the context of a consistent approach to the use of online education resources. In addition, the expediency of applying certain types of self-educational activities of students and finding out the general and distinctive features of "traditional" and "electronic" training will determine the prospects and opportunities of mass open online courses. This leads to an expansion of the resource potential for training social workers in innovative activities and promoting effective professional socialization and meeting the self-educational needs of students.

At the same time, the trend of using information and communication technologies, active involvement in online platforms of non-formal education and the use of the Internet, mobile means of communication contributed to the emergence of an innovative form of organizing the educational process - the blended learning model. The development of blended learning has significantly accelerated the expansion of opportunities for attracting all participants in the educational process to innovative activities regarding the active use of digital technologies and the Internet, as well as the potential of online education. Moreover, the limit of attracting subjects of self-educational activities for the use of mass open online resources is not clearly established.

Most often, four main models are used in practice, according to which self- educational activities of students are organized [14]: model of social interaction (model of cooperative learning, method of social curiosity, method of group research, laboratory method); information and process model (model of development of scientific interest, model of developing learning and cognitive development); personological model (non-directive learning, model of conceptual system); behavioral model (model of behavior modification).

Among features of the organization of self-educational activities of students as a certain type of achievement of the effectiveness of the educational process is a system of general and special competencies that determine certain factors of its construction. Among the significant factors are determined: the means of assimilation as mandatory independent work, which is carried out in the course of training sessions and preparation for them and additional (selective) independent work, which is made according to a special individual plan; differentiation of management - direct management: direct help of the teacher; co-management: planning of students' activities; self-management: without any outside help; form of practical implementation - classroom independent work and extracurricular independent work; content - search-analytical and research independent work.

At that time, the availability of scientific and methodological support, social and administrative support for the application of educational resources will be able to increase satisfaction from professional activities and the choice of means of intervention to their involvement [15]. It is clear that the influence of factors related to the relationship between teaching and learning [16] expands teaching opportunities, which leads to student involvement in learning. At the same time, it is the acquisition of "the characteristic ability to combine physical and virtual, individual and group learning with a mixed mobile presence that ensures the personal participation of each student in the learning process" [17]. At the same time, multi-faceted opportunities created to improve student engagement, according to E.R. Kahu [18], have a rather serious impact on educational and scientific achievements, teaching in higher education, because by understanding the key problems and factors of expanding various. Perspectives of engagement (behavioral, psychosocial, socio-cultural and holistic) of students, it becomes possible to ensure the effectiveness of teaching and learning.

In the context of our research, through a survey, we found out in which areas of professional activity in the field of social work students gain professional experience in the context of classroom and extracurricular educational and social activities (Fig. 1).

The distribution of respondents' responses to determine the priority areas of professional activity in the field of social work, for which students -- future social workers are trained, is determined in order of their importance. According to our data, students prefer social and technological activities (93.1 %), while organizational and managerial (85.5 %) and socio-pedagogical (74.1 %) activities, and already social and project (46.5 %) and research activities (31.4 %). This indicates that the strategy of these higher education institutions is primarily aimed at ensuring preparation for client- oriented social work and administrative social work.

This indicates the need to increase knowledge about the innovative activities of social workers, since the opinions of students were distributed almost equally, thereby filling the normative academic disciplines of the specialty "social work" with an innovative component. This is especially true for practice-oriented academic disciplines, in particular "social work with different groups of clients", which orients students to apply traditional methods and forms in working with clients and "innovative technologies of social work", the content of which reveals the features of introducing innovative areas of social work with appropriate methods and forms of solving social problems, as well as the introduction of innovative content- oriented academic disciplines of students ' choice.

It is also worth focusing on the possibilities of influencing factors that seriously concern students about the possibilities of innovative professional activities (Table 1.).

Fig. 1. Areas of professional activity in the field of social work that need to be trained (at the choice of students)

Table 1. Factors that seriously concern students about the possibilities of innovative professional activities

At the same time, it encourages and abilities, Act and make decisions to students to master new knowledge, skills expand the boundaries of involvement in social work innovations through self-educational activities through massive open online resources.

Therefore, we focused on finding conditions and opportunities for integrating and integrating online courses of massive open online resources into the training of social workers in a blended learning format. It was worth focusing on the opportunities of online educational platforms, in particular EDUCATIONAL HUB, BYM ONLINE, PROMETHEUS, IMPACTORIUM, which encourage students to take diverse online courses for personal and professional growth and self-expression, promote the development of critical and creative thinking, the manifestation of initiative ideas and active participation in public, volunteer and social project activities. It is online courses that can complement the content, methods and forms of professional training of social workers and diversify students ' self- educational activities. Obviously, each higher education institution can meet certain requirements for recognizing the results of students ' self-education activities when mastering online courses, the feasibility of combining and integrating online learning with the traditional professional training system.

Evaluating the quality of mass open online courses in accordance with the improvement of key criteria for their development and application and the principles of online learning is still a controversial issue. So, to ensure the quality of mass open online courses, the following principles should be followed: 1. Problem-centred; 2. Activation; 3. Demonstration; 4. Application; 5. Integration; 6. Collective knowledge; 7. Collaboration; 8. Differentiation; 9. Authentic resources; 10. Feedback. [19: 78-79]. In accordance with our research, we study the factors that influence students' choice of mass open online courses and the indicators of enrollment and its successful completion [20; 21].

In general, the study showed that although students generally approve of the introduction of innovative social services that occur in modern social work, their independence regarding proposals and the development of their own initiatives proves the need to improve the educational process of preparing social workers for innovation.

It is interesting that this attitude can be attributed to a certain extent to students ' interest in improving the training process, introducing the latest educational technologies, methods and teaching tools. In this case, it can be argued that there are opportunities to enrich their professional experience and increase the resource potential of training social workers through the use of mass open online courses.

Conclusions and research perspectives

The results of the study provide a basis for the conclusion about the importance and necessity of using mass open online resources in the format of mixed learning for students receiving higher education in the specialty "Social Work”. Online courses help to combine educational resources for training social workers for innovative professional activities and act as a factor of enriching their professional experience and increasing the resource potential for training social workers.

The deployment of effective student participation focuses on creating a regulatory framework for identifying the success of online learning, since online courses are recommended for self-study without checking educational results by teachers. Consequently, blended learning contributes to the use of open online resources in the training of social workers, while simultaneously studying normative, professionally oriented disciplines and academic disciplines of students' choice.

References (translated & transliterated)

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