Biologists Share Experiences

Teachers of the Department of Biotechnology of Al-Farabi KazNU is actively using distance education technologies and streaming training during quarantine. They share their experience with colleagues from other Universities in Kazakhstan.

According to the Head of the Department, Aida Kistaubaeva, the IT infrastructure, which is available at the University – the developed «Univer» system, as well as the «Moodle», «edX» and MEP platforms, made it possible to switch to distance learning quickly and without problems. Teachers were able to adapt the content of lectures, seminars and laboratory classes to a distance format in a short time, while demonstrating their high IT competence. Classes today are held in Kazakh, English and Russian. The schedule remains the same, unchanged.

The educational process is implemented using various platforms, such as «Zoom», «Microsoft teams», and «Google meet», etc. In addition, teachers of the Biotechnology Department conduct classes not only in streaming broadcasts, but also through chat classes, educational games, and interactive games using the «Kahoot» application, interactive cases using animated infographics.

Today, the demand for massive open online courses has increased. Thus, 239 students have been trained at the online courses «Basics of Biotechnology». According to A. Kistaubaeva, in the near future it is planned to record a number of video lessons for the next academic year for the «edX» platform in Microbiology, Biochemistry and Environmental Biotechnology. Educators have been already developing content for these video tutorials. It should be noted that at present, lectures for the «Coursera» and «edX» platforms on Molecular Biology, Biophysics and Zoology are being recorded at the Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology.

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