Features of Utilization Information and Communication Technology in

the Process of Teaching the “Environmental Impact Assessment” Course

Iryna M. Barna

1 a

, Liudmyla R. Hrytsak

1 b

, Halyna R. Henseruk

1 c

and Svitlana H. Lytvynova

2 d

Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University, 2 M. Kryvonosa str., Ternopil, 46027, Ukraine

Institute for Digitalisation of Education of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine, 9 M. Berlynskoho

Str., Kyiv, 04060, Ukraine

Keywords:

Ecology, Environmental Impact Assessment, Information Technology, Digital Competence, Online Re-

sources, Interactive Boards, Ind Maps, Higher Education, Assessment.

Abstract:

Increasing demand for experts capable of high-quality assessment of the impact of a particular planned activity

on the environment involves a more effective use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the

educational process of training ecology students. The authors present a methodology for students to study the

educational material of the “Environmental Impact Assessment” course by using ICT. The methodology and

algorithm for using the Padlet interactive whiteboard, Mindomo mind maps, Easel infographics, Google Drive

and Google Docs in lectures and practical lessons are described. Particular attention is paid to the preparation

of a group and individual projects using ICT. Tested in the Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical

University, the methodology allows to implement a number of tasks such as: promotion of intensiﬁcation and

effectiveness of teaching; acquisition of practical skills to quickly ﬁnd the necessary information on various

online resources for ecology students; simulation of the real procedure of environmental impact assessment

in the classroom; development of the ability to professionally communicate with experts in other ﬁelds of

knowledge or activity, etc. Examination of the results of using ICT to study the “Environmental Impact

Assessment” course has shown a signiﬁcant increase in informational literacy among ecology students and

their individual professional growth.

1 INTRODUCTION

Long-term use of biosphere resources by humans has

led to a signiﬁcant transformation of the natural en-

vironment. The analysis of degradation processes

indicates a violation of regulatory mechanisms that

support the stability and durability of ecosystems.

Awareness of the problem of natural ecosystems los-

ing their ability of self-recovery has prompted the

search for ways to stabilize their state. However, in

modern environmental strategies and approaches con-

siderable attention is paid not only to technologies

to overcome the already existing effects of anthro-

pogenic impact but also to the development of preven-

tive measures that should avert the negative impact of

economic activity on the environment.

Such measures include environmental impact as-

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8435-3959

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2872-5201

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5156-7280

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5450-6635

sessment, the purpose of which is to carry out a pre-

dictive environmental impact assessment of a partic-

ular industrial object or activity at its development

stage. According to the expert ﬁndings provided

in the environmental impact assessment, it is possi-

ble to identify environmentally damaging economic

projects in advance. Alongside with environmental

protection technologies that can reduce anthropogenic

pressure, preventive measures ensure the implementa-

tion of a sustainable development strategy in the ﬁeld

of ecology. Environmental impact assessment is one

of such preventative measures.

Therefore, the compulsory “Environmental Im-

pact Assessment” (EIA) course is included in the cur-

riculum for bachelors of the 101 “Ecology” speciality

of Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogi-

cal University (TNPU). Studying this subject provides

students with the necessary professional skills to qual-

ify as an ecology expert. It should be noted that the

learning outcomes provided by the Higher Education

Standard of the 101 “Ecology” speciality for the ﬁrst

332

Barna, I., Hrytsak, L., Henseruk, H. and Lytvynova, S.

Features of Utilization Information and Communication Technology in the Process of Teaching the "Environmental Impact Assessment" Course.

DOI: 10.5220/0010931500003364

In Proceedings of the 1st Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology (AET 2020) - Volume 2, pages 332-345

ISBN: 978-989-758-558-6

(bachelor) degree of higher education (according to

the decree of the Ministry of Education and Science

of Ukraine No. 1076 of 04.10.2018), apart from the

cumulative knowledge, skills and proﬁciencies, stu-

dents must also acquire the following general compe-

tencies:

1. Proﬁciency in using information and communica-

tion technologies.

2. Ability to adapt and act in new situations.

3. Ability to communicate with professionals of dif-

ferent spheres and of various levels (with experts

in other ﬁelds of knowledge/types of economic

activity).

4. Ability to work in a team.

5. Proﬁciency in interpersonal interaction.

An ecology student can become a competitive ex-

pert in ecology and be able to respond to the needs

of society only when they master professional com-

petencies, which are also speciﬁed in the standard,

namely:

1. The knowledge of current national and interna-

tional ecological legislation achievements.

2. The ability to evaluate the impact of technogen-

esis on the state of the environment and identify

ecological risks associated with production activ-

ities.

3. The ability to use modern information resources

for ecological research.

4. The ability to inform the public about the state of

ecological security and the sustainable manage-

ment of nature.

In general, such a range of competencies as a

learning outcome reﬂects not only the extraordinary

dynamism of modern ecology development and its re-

search methods but also the approaches to obtain re-

liable up-to-date information for a prompt and sub-

stantiated response to environmental changes. On the

other hand, the content component of the standard for

training ecologists stipulates that within the legally set

periods of training they must not only accurately mas-

ter the knowledge base of the profession, but also new

methods and technologies of obtaining relevant infor-

mation to identify trends in the state of ecological ob-

jects under the inﬂuence of anthropogenic activity.

Environmental impact assessment in Ukraine be-

gan to be carried out in December 2017, which is why

the “Environmental Impact Assessment” course ap-

peared in the bachelor’s degree program in the 101

“Ecology” speciality of TNPU only in 2018. This

fact determines the relevance of the development of

its educational and methodological base.

Our distinct understanding of these tasks within

this course of study has led to the search for methods

and learning tools through which the educational pro-

cess would ensure a great didactic effect. Being con-

cerned about the professional image of our students

we perceived this problem as a task that needed an

immediate and high-quality solution. In our opinion,

one of the ways to solve this problem is to use infor-

mation and communication technologies while study-

ing the “Environmental Impact Assessment” course.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

The strategy for sustainable development in the ﬁeld

of ecology involves scientiﬁc studies concerning the

reduction of anthropogenic impact on the environ-

ment. Recently (since 2018), the topic of ecological

studies in Ukraine has included the issue of environ-

mental impact assessment. The analysis of the degree

of scientiﬁc knowledge reveals a lack of study of this

issue in contemporary scientiﬁc literature.

MacKinnon et al. (MacKinnon et al., 2018) study

the history of use of science in environmental impact

assessment, as well as provide a conceptual and tech-

nical overview of scientiﬁc developments related to

environmental impact assessment since its inception

in the early 1970s.

In Ukraine, since the advent of environmental im-

pact assessment Barna (Barna, 2019) and Naumenko

(Naumenko, 2018) have conducted an analysis of en-

vironmental impact assessment in comparison with

ecological examination.

The issues of using ICT to achieve sustainable

development goals have been raised in (Lobanova

et al., 2020; Morkun et al., 2017; Williams, 2011).

Houghton (Houghton, 2010) explores how the Inter-

net and ICT can help solve environmental problems

in developing countries.

ICT has a major impact on education as it opens

up opportunities to introduce completely new teach-

ing methods. The investigation of ICT role in the ed-

ucational process and its impact on improving the ed-

ucational environment is substantiated in (Bykov and

Ovcharuk, 2017; Gurzhiy and Lapinsky, 2013; Morze

and Vorotnikova, 2016; Osadchyi, 2014; Semerikov

et al., 2020; Spirin, 2011). Fedoniuk et al. (Fedo-

niuk et al., 2015) provide examples of use of Internet

resources in the practical course of the “Natural Re-

serves Education” subject. The results show that ICT

qualitatively inﬂuence the improvement of teaching

and evaluation methods and contribute to the develop-

ment of students’ information culture (Fauville et al.,

2014; Adu and Mireku, 2016).

Features of Utilization Information and Communication Technology in the Process of Teaching the "Environmental Impact Assessment"

Course

333

However, researchers have not outlined ways to

use ICT in the process of studying the “Environmental

Impact Assessment” course so that ecology students

could acquire practical skills. Without this approach

it is difﬁcult to provide quality professional training

of future experts.

Thus, the research analysis allows us to infer that

there is a lack of scientiﬁc papers that would depict

the features of the use of ICT in the study of the

“Environmental Impact Assessment” course, which

makes the above issues insufﬁciently explored.

The article is aimed at explaining the features of

utilization of information and communication tech-

nologies in the process of studying an academic dis-

cipline by future ecology experts. The object of study

involves an analysis of application of information

and communication technologies in different types of

lessons in higher education institutions when studying

the “Environmental Impact Assessment” course.

The article that we have presented is based on the

analysis of our own experience of teaching the “En-

vironmental Impact Assessment” course for several

years.

Monitoring of the students’ knowledge quality in-

dicators and the level of professional competencies

they formed based on the results of testing our pre-

viously developed methods of teaching EIA using

ICT tools shows a positive didactic effect. This in-

dicates the expediency of continuing to work on im-

proving the methodology of teaching the course. In

our opinion, the expansion of the range of ICT tools

will likewise allow to implement the concept of as-

sessment, which will contribute to more effective in-

dividual student progress, increase their motivation

and redirect their priorities from external assessment

to self-assessment. As a result, it will positively affect

the level of formation of professional competencies of

future ecology experts, which meets the needs of the

modern vision of education.

3 RESULTS

At present sustainable development of Ukraine is im-

possible without EIA. Environmental impact assess-

ment is a procedure in which potential investors, who

plan a speciﬁc type of activity, interact with state in-

spectors, who are required to provide an environmen-

tal impact assessment report. The participants also in-

clude experts who at the request of potential investors

must evaluate the impact of the planned activity on the

environment and, if necessary, to propose measures to

bring the environmental impact of such an activity to

the current regulations of the environmental legisla-

tion. The EIA procedure calls forth the involvement

of the public, which is empowered to approve or re-

ject the planned activity projects based on the con-

sequences for the environment. Thus, EIA involves

the work of investors, ecologists, state experts and the

public with basic environmental impact assessment

documents, the features of preparation of which fu-

ture ecologists need to know.

EIA in Ukraine has been carried out since De-

cember 18, 2017, according to the law of Ukraine

on environmental impact assessment. In December

2019, two years passed since EIA was ﬁrst used, how-

ever, the applied aspects of its implementation re-

quire methodological development and improvement.

There is also a lack of textbooks for professional

training of EIA experts. This signiﬁcantly compli-

cates the teaching process of this course. For these

reasons, the search for effective teaching methods of

this subject is relevant and substantiated. It should be

taken into consideration that while teaching the “En-

vironmental Impact Assessment” course it is neces-

sary to develop the students’ ability to work both as

ecology experts and as state experts. Ecology experts

need to be able to prepare EIA reports. State experts

need to be able to analyze the EIA reports to issue

the appropriate conclusion. These two roles are dif-

ferent, but studying the “Environmental Impact As-

sessment”course stipulates that the educational com-

petencies of both components of the future profession

are developed.

We believe that comparative method with the aid

of ICT is the most optimal in this situation.

The latter is a necessary component of the EIA

educational process for several reasons: changes to

laws and subordinate legislations are most promptly

reﬂected on ofﬁcial websites of the relevant ministry,

institutions and organizations; the EIA procedure in-

volves the registration of a potential investor in an e-

cabinet, online ﬁling of documents in the EIA register,

online communication with the public and state insti-

tutions. This involves the formation of future ecology

experts’ information competence. All of this has been

taken into account by us when developing a method-

ology for using ICT in the process of teaching the

“Environmental Impact Assessment” course.

At the initial stage, we examined information and

communication technologies, and as a result, found

online resources that allow professors to create con-

ditions in the academic setting for the students’ active

educational trajectory (ﬁgure 1). At the second stage,

the most effective online resources for different forms

of the educational process (lectures, practical training,

group projects) were selected. At the third stage, the

developed methodology was tested during the “Envi-

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ronmental Impact Assessment” course.

Generalization, synthesis and integration of the

obtained data concerning the effectiveness of the ini-

tially tested method showed the expediency to im-

prove it, which we carried out in the fourth stage of

our study.

Lectures. The use of ICT for lecture form of ed-

ucational process compensates for the lack of text-

books and manuals for this course. The use of ICT

allows students to create an electronic synopsis using

Internet resources and the Padlet interactive white-

board, which provides the opportunity to discuss a

higher number of questions than that of a traditional

lecture.

The lessons were held in computer classrooms

where each student was able to use ICT. Issues like

course objectives and methods of conducting the

lessons, ways of evaluating the level of professional

and informational competence, and determined meth-

ods of preparing projects using ICT were discussed in

the ﬁrst lecture.

Among the wide variety of online services for

conducting lectures interactive whiteboards have been

selected to create teaching materials that contain cer-

tain information in the form of text, pictures, graphs,

photos, videos, infographics, namely:

• Padlet;

• Whiteboard;

• Realtime Board;

• WikiWall;

• Dabbleboard;

• Popplet.

The use of these boards not only allows professors

to communicate in real-time online but also to record

the lesson (Khmil, 2014). Recording the lesson can be

done both by the professor and the students. In addi-

tion, professors and students can leave text notes and

comments on certain elements, upload and edit ﬁles,

attach text and pdf ﬁles, graphic images using spe-

cial services on the virtual board. Using simple and

straightforward tools, professors can clearly visualize

information as a diagram. It is important that group

work is integrated on a single site.

In the educational process, virtual boards can be

created to:

• post information on the studied topic;

• post information or questions to ﬁnd information;

• brainstorm to gather ideas;

• organize group work to ﬁnd a collective opinion

concerning the problem;

• do projects together.

Such virtual board learning opportunities have al-

lowed them to be used in the “Environmental Impact

Assessment” course lectures. The use of the Padlet in-

teractive whiteboard turned out to be the most optimal

use of a virtual board. One of the advantages of this

service is that Padlet is convenient to use as a docu-

ment storage system. Materials uploaded to the board

will be available at any time, which is especially rele-

vant for students who were absent from the lesson and

those in distance learning.

As an example, we demonstrate the methodology

of conducting a lecture on the topic: “EIA as a mech-

anism to ensure ecological safety”.

The ﬁrst post on the board contained information

about the subject of the lesson and the task. It was

convenient to search for the EIA law from a drop-

down menu of the post directly on the board, which

allows you to optimize time spent (without opening

new browser tabs) (ﬁgure 2). The search result leads

to an image with a link to the law on environmental

impact assessment, as the main document for study-

ing (ﬁgure 3).

In the lecture, after reading another article of the

law the students were asked questions in the following

sequence:

Question 1. What terms and concepts are confusing

or unknown?

Question 2. Deﬁne the main content of the article of

law, for instance, article 1.

Typically, in response to the ﬁrst question, stu-

dents could have written: “What is an institutional

framework”. The most confusing terms were deter-

mined by allowing students to mutually evaluate their

posts. Using Padlet’s search engine, students found

deﬁnitions of these terms, offered links, established

connections to posts with the corresponding caption

on the connection line. In this way, the process of

learning new material in the short term “materialized”

on the Padlet board during group work (ﬁgure 4).

It should be noted that at the initial stages of study-

ing the course the students were not active. This is

partly due to the inability to use such information and

communication technologies. However, within 10–

15 minutes students quickly gained proﬁciency in the

means of ICT, became active and showed consider-

able interest. At this stage, the lesson was conducted

in the form of a brainstorming session. This teach-

ing format contributed to the formation of a positive

emotional dimension to the lessons, which increased

didactic results.

Being able to access a signiﬁcant portion of arti-

cles of the EIA law in Padlet’s search engine via hy-

perlinks was a great advantage. For instance, article

Features of Utilization Information and Communication Technology in the Process of Teaching the "Environmental Impact Assessment"

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Figure 1: ICT in the academic setting.

Figure 2: Padlet board content 1 (information search).

1: “Planned activity is planned economic activity that

includes construction, reconstruction, ... according to

the criteria (originally a hyperlink), approved by the

Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine”.

While working with the Padlet board students cre-

ated a document as a part of an e-synopsis and saved

it on a virtual drive. Students took notes (as a sep-

arate document) in the form of a table which had 4

columns. While ﬁlling in each of the columns the stu-

dents:

1. Studied an article of the law.

2. Established the main content of the article of the

law.

3. Established the signiﬁcance of the article for an

ecology expert.

4. Established the signiﬁcance of the article for a

state expert.

To answer the second question students analyzed

the content highlighting the main content (in bold or

with a colour) (ﬁgure 5).

The format of the table in the text document of the

e-synopsis made it easy to organize and summarize

the learning material and promoted the qualitative ac-

quisition of knowledge and formation of professional

skills. The e-synopsis thus fulﬁlled the function of

a textbook to study the course, prepare for practical

lessons and the basis for proper and timely comple-

tion of a group project as well as an individual project,

which the students were expected to execute in accor-

dance with the organization of the educational process

according to our improved teaching methods.

To involve all students in active participation the

professor provided them with the chance to analyze

all the terms using ICT and to take notes for them-

selves.

The professor’s comments on the students’ posts

on the Padlet board made it possible for the students

to focus on the key information and transfer it to their

e-synopsis. In the case of repeated references to the

article in the law, the students did not have to reopen

the document since the information had already been

saved in their e-synopsis (ﬁgures 6, 7).

The students analyzed the connections between

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Figure 3: Padlet board content 2 (information search).

Figure 4: Padlet board content (information discussion).

the articles of the law in an electronic document for

a fully understand them and to apply them properly.

Group project. According to the organization of

the educational process of the “Environmental impact

assessment” course two student groups were expected

to prepare an e-project which also used mind maps,

in accordance with the initially developed teaching

method.

Today the mind map technology is a new tool for

structuring and storing information in human mem-

ory. One effective way of structuring memorization

stages is to provide educational material with a tree

structure. Such structures are widely used everywhere

where it is necessary to picture a large amount of in-

formation in a short and compact way. Mind maps

are a convenient and effective technique for visualiz-

Features of Utilization Information and Communication Technology in the Process of Teaching the "Environmental Impact Assessment"

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Figure 5: Content of the e-synopsis.

Figure 6: Professor’s comments on the students’ posts.

ing thought and graphic displays of associative con-

nections. They can be used to create and capture new

ideas, analyze and systematize information, and make

decisions.

There are many online services to create connec-

tion diagrams in mind maps (Romanovskyi et al.,

2018). The most popular ones are Mindomo, MAP-

MYself, Mind42, MindMap, Glinkr (Ivanova et al.,

2020). To create an EIA project, we suggest using

Mindomo. Designing a mind map allowed the stu-

dents to create a system of related data and identify

the stages of activity the sequence of which is consis-

tent with the logic of the EIA process, which in our

case will allow us to construct an algorithm of actions

of an ecology researcher or an ecology expert (ﬁg-

ure 8).

Our study also used the didactic resources of

Google Drive, which include tools for creating text

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Figure 7: Students’ posts assessment.

documents, spreadsheets, presentations, data visual-

izations. Saving the results of the group project in

Google Drive in the suggested by the professor struc-

ture was a mandatory and practical work condition, in

our opinion (ﬁgure 9). The students saved the project

on their personal Google Drive and gave access to an-

other group of students.

We ﬁnd that this method of saving the results has

the following advantages:

1) auto-saving of the latest version of the document;

2) variability when checking the work by the profes-

sor (the student could choose how to communi-

cate with the professor: through Google Drive or

email);

3) the means to check the notes of several students

on the example of a single work by the professor

online in Google Drive;

4) the ability to mutually analyze the obtained data

by multiple users.

One way to present the ﬁrst folder of the group

project was to create an infographic in Easel. It could

include a set of pictures of ofﬁcial pages of differ-

ent state institutions and text blocks from the point of

view of their importance for the EIA procedure.

The student groups were tasked to evaluate the

project using SWOT analysis technology. The SWOT

analysis method involved mutual evaluation of a

group project by students according to four criteria.

The students evaluated the “strengths” of the project

according to the following criteria:

1) the completeness of the answer;

2) the correctness of the answer;

3) adherence to the sequence of stages of the EIA

procedure;

4) the manner of representation of items 1-3 in the

structure of the presentation.

If the above criteria were partly or fully not

met, the students listed them as “weaknesses” of the

project. Comparative analysis of the “strengths” and

the “weaknesses” of the project at the level of pluses

“+” and minuses “–” performed a motivational func-

tion, because it identiﬁed opportunities or threats.

“Opportunities” during the SWOT analysis of the

project were viewed as a sign of full (provided the

prevalence of strengths) or partial (provided there

were weaknesses) readiness to work as an ecology ex-

pert or a state expert. In the evaluation 1 met criterion

stood for 1 point or in the case of partial execution –

0.5 points. For example, if a group project fully met

the criteria, students rated it at 4 points (ﬁgure 10).

“Threats” as one of the categories of the group

project SWOT analysis ascertained the fact of the ex-

istence of gaps in knowledge, which could potentially

lead to the inability to work as an expert in the ﬁeld

of EIA.

The utilization of the group project SWOT anal-

ysis allowed students with a low level of acquired

knowledge of the course to ﬁll in the gaps during in-

terpersonal interaction with those with a good under-

standing of the course.

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Figure 8: A model of algorithm construction on the example of the EIA procedure.

Figure 9: Tasks for the group project.

The method of teaching the “Environmental Im-

pact Assessment” course tested by us proved to be

effective, as didactic goals were achieved and profes-

sional competencies of students were formed. This

ensured a high level of knowledge among the major-

ity of students. Students noted that the lessons pos-

sessed a positive emotional nature, which promoted

their cognitive functions.

However, this approach to the content and im-

plementation of teaching the “Environmental Impact

Assessment” course on the example of the proposed

methodology, in our opinion, can be improved, which

was achieved as follows.

Lectures and practical classes were carried out ac-

cording to the previously described method using the

resources of the interactive whiteboard Padlet, creat-

ing an e-synopsis and saving it on a virtual drive, sys-

tematically consulting the professor. However, at the

stage of the creating of the project we proposed the

following tasks, which were evaluated according to

the new approach and with the use of additional ICT

resources.

First of all, the nature of the project was changed

from a group assignment to an individual one, and its

content involved the creation of:

a) presentations;

b) infographics.

During the study of the “Environmental Impact

Assessment” course presentation as a method of work

and a means of assessment of students’ academic

achievement should include:

a) all the documents required in accordance with the

EIA procedure, prepared according to the exam-

ples;

b) the chronological order of presentation of docu-

ments according to the EIA procedure.

To determine the quality of the students’ knowl-

edge and the formation of their professional compe-

tencies and skills, the following evaluation criteria

were selected:

1. The semantic component, i.e. the correctness of

the ﬁlled out documents in accordance with the

requirements of the Law of Ukraine on EIA.

2. Adherence to the procedure during the prepara-

tion of the documents, which is reﬂected in the

order of the documents in the presentation.

3. The list of used sources, in particular, online pages

of relevant organizations.

By their own choice, students formed pairs in

which they mutually evaluated their presentations.

Students evaluated the presentation of their partner on

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Figure 10: The SWOT analysis matrix.

Figure 11: ICT tools for assessment.

the basis of “correct-incorrect”, which denoted +1 or

-1 point.

In order to eliminate any displays of biased eval-

uation, which would be evident through abnormally

high or low marks, the students’ evaluation was over-

seen by the professor acting as a facilitator, who si-

multaneously evaluated presentations according to the

same criteria.

The discussion of the mistakes in the presenta-

tion took place with the assistance of excellent stu-

dents. After giving their fellow student a chance to

correct their mistake they proposed the correct solu-

tion. Moreover, the discussion took place from the

standpoint of assessment, which allows you to assess

and adjust the educational process.

Assessment of tasks executed by students should

be diagnostic in nature, as it allows to identify incon-

sistencies between the program requirements for the

students’ education level and to establish gaps in the

acquisition of the educational material. Assessment

has particular goals, methods and means of imple-

mentation.

Earl (Earl, 2012) substantiates assessment as “as-

sessment for learning”, which occurs when professors

use observations about students’ progress, and “as-

sessment as learning”, which occurs when students

Features of Utilization Information and Communication Technology in the Process of Teaching the "Environmental Impact Assessment"

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341

reﬂect and monitor their progress to form their learn-

ing goals.

Assessment for learning is the process of search-

ing for and interpreting data used by students and

professors to address issues concerning their level of

learning, in which direction they need to move in and

how best to do so (Assessment Reform Group, 2002).

Thus, assessment enables students to be aware of

and track their own progress and to create their own

learning trajectory with the help of a professor or a

consultant.

Assessment develops the students’ skill of “study-

ing by learning” and provides an opportunity to in-

volve students as consultants and experts in the educa-

tional process. It helps them develop effective strate-

gies of learning. Students who take an active part in

the discussion during the learning process; assess the

quality of their assignments and their peers’ assign-

ments according to clearly deﬁned criteria; develop

their own digital competence, in particular, one of its

components problem solving.

The introduction of assessment in the educational

process is becoming more relevant and effective with

the use of ICT tools. Assessment technology provides

feedback aimed at improving the educational process.

ICT tools for assesment can be used at different

stages of the lesson depending on its goals (ﬁgure 11).

Based on the results of the discussion of the pre-

sentations from the standpoint of assessment, the stu-

dents determined which tasks they performed suc-

cessfully, and which ones need to be analyzed, ad-

justed and re-done.

The process of evaluating the presentations was

carried out using the Mentimeter resource, which stu-

dents utilized to cooperate in the presence of a profes-

sor acting as a facilitator.

Our choice of Mentimeter as a feedback tool is

due to three main criteria: an intuitive interface; no

need for students to register; multifunctionality, i.e. it

is possible to use the resource during any stage of the

lesson for various tasks.

Mentimeter is a simple and easy-to-learn voting

tool that provides instant feedback from your class-

room. It is convenient to use to interview students in

real time, as it is available on both mobile devices and

on the web.

It is an excellent tool for assessment: students can

record their points and assign marks for completed

tasks based on certain criteria (correctness, complete-

ness, chronological order) (ﬁgure 12). The professor

can demonstrate such assignments on lectures when

checking homework to brush up on the material, dur-

ing initial monitoring of understanding of the new ma-

terial, in the middle of the lesson as a means to iden-

tify problem areas, at the end of the lesson during in-

trospection.

The next step of the project involved working on

creating infographics.

The utilization of illustrative materials in the ed-

ucational process is an integral part of a modern pro-

fessor’s activity, and the use of infographics, as one of

the new means of visualization, improves the learning

quality of the studied material.

Smiciklas (Smiciklas, 2012) deﬁnes infographics

as a type of illustration that combines design and var-

ious data, which allows you to concisely and quickly

convey information to the target audience.

The purpose of infographics is to improve the pro-

cess of information perception; explanation of com-

plex material in simple terms using images; transfer

data in a creative, compact and interesting way, which

has special advantages over the usual textual presen-

tation of information.

During the research, we have identiﬁed two ap-

proaches to the use of infographics in the educational

process: “professor-student” and “student-professor”.

In the ﬁrst approach, infographics are created by the

professor to solve certain educational aims (attract-

ing students’ attention, structuring data, etc.). In the

second approach, infographics are created by the stu-

dents during the learning process.

The creation of infographics was individual in na-

ture. When creating the infographic the students took

into account the mistakes that were made during the

creation of the presentation, and therefore it helped

them to increase their level of knowledge acquisi-

tion. Students independently analyzed the informa-

tion, structured it and presented it graphically (ﬁg-

ure 13). This type of work allowed students to study

the material better, analyze its important aspects and

contributed to the development of their critical think-

ing. Thus, infographics became a tool for systemati-

zation of knowledge based on the discussion of mis-

takes made during the presentation. If necessary, the

professor provided assistance as a facilitator.

The use of these ICT resources allows you to sig-

niﬁcantly optimize the process of teaching the EIA

course. However, it is only possible to evaluate the ef-

fectiveness of our developed and tested methodology

by determining the level of formation of professional

competencies in ecology students.

The analysis of scientiﬁc and pedagogical litera-

ture showed that among scientists there is no singu-

lar approach to determine qualitative and quantitative

criteria for evaluation of the level of formation of pro-

fessional competencies. For example, Pavlyutenkov

(Pavlyutenkov, 2008) distinguishes ﬁve levels of pro-

fessional competence: very low, low, medium, high

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342

Figure 12: Assessment of completed tasks by students.

Figure 13: Example of an infographics.

Figure 14: Formation of professional competencies in students based on the methodology of I-M and II-M.

Features of Utilization Information and Communication Technology in the Process of Teaching the "Environmental Impact Assessment"

Course

343

and very high. We proposed four levels (L) of profes-

sional competence of a future ecologist: high (LA),

medium (LB) and low (LC) and very low (LD). We

determined them by the quality of the knowledge ac-

quired by students in the process of studying the “En-

vironmental Impact Assessment” course.

As mentioned above, the methodologies we devel-

oped differed in their approaches to the use of ICT

resources. The initial (I-M) methodology involved

the use of ICT for lectures and group projects (Barna

et al., 2020). In the improved (II-M) methodology,

ICT resources were also used for individual assign-

ments. We hypothesize that this will affect the levels

of formed competencies in students.

To support or refute this working hypothesis we

analyzed the level of formed competencies in two

groups of students, which differed in the methodol-

ogy of using ICT in the process of studying EIA. The

two groups were: the I-M group and the II-M group.

In each of the groups, we determined the share of stu-

dents with a certain level of formed competence. To

achieve this, they were ranked according to the num-

ber of points gained: LD – from 0–60 points; LC –

from 60–74 points; LB – 75–89 points; LA – from

90–100 points. In each group, the share of students

with a certain level of competence can range from 0%

to 100%.

The analysis of the obtained research results

showed (ﬁgure 14) that by using ICT resources only

during lectures and group projects of the I-M group

there was a share of students with a very low level of

formed competencies.

The share of students with a different level of com-

petencies in the I-M group is lower by 10 per cent

compared to the II-M group. The obtained results

are presumably caused by the fact that the execution

of the group project allowed some students to take

a smaller part in its realization. The identiﬁcation

of “weaknesses” and strong “threats” in the process

of project evaluation based on the method of SWOT

analysis was not individual in nature. Therefore, a

low mark for the group project was not perceived by

the students as a personal failure. The II-M group stu-

dents were personally responsible for the execution of

their individual project. The use of the Mentimeter

resource in the process of discussion of the presen-

tations and infographics incentivized each student to

ﬁll in their gaps in knowledge and motivated a more

creative and effective presentation of their work.

4 CONCLUSIONS AND

PROSPECTS FOR FURTHER

RESEARCH

The training of future ecologists in the context of the

transformation of higher education involves the acqui-

sition of knowledge and the formation of skills. One

of the ways to achieve this goal is to use informa-

tion and communication technologies in the process

of studying the course by future ecology experts.

The initial methodology of conducting lessons and

preparing a project in the “Environmental Impact As-

sessment” course, suggested and tested by us, allowed

the students to optimize the time spent searching for

educational materials, preparing them and making

them applicable as much as possible. Each student

was given the opportunity to organize their e-synopsis

and project simultaneously via using ICT during at

lectures and while preparing for practical lessons. In

the e-synopsis they constructed an algorithm of ac-

tions of an ecologist as a potential researcher or ex-

pert in the ﬁeld of environmental impact assessment,

through the use of distinct guidance from the pro-

fessor, group work during lessons, and independent

study.

While studying the “Environmental Impact As-

sessment” course, students developed skills of using

information and communication technologies in lec-

tures and while preparing a group project.

Through the use of the Padlet interactive white-

board, students gained the ability to adapt and act in

new situations when studying the law of Ukraine on

environmental impact assessment or discussing its ar-

ticles.

With the use of ICT during brainstorming at lec-

tures, practical lessons, group assignments, group

projects, students were able to practice communicat-

ing with experts in other ﬁelds of knowledge or ac-

tivities. By simulating the real-world environmental

impact assessment procedure, students developed in-

terpersonal skills that were reinforced by the use of

online resources.

The improvement of the initial methodology

based on the use of assessment and additional ICT re-

sources during the discussion of an individual project

has provided an increase in the share of students with

medium and high level of professional competencies.

Learning the material of all modules of the course,

the students acquired the skills to evaluate the impact

of technogenesis on the environment through the use

of ICT at the stage of studying the EIA procedure.

Examining the learning outcomes showed us that

the use of ICT provided students with the ability to

use information resources in ecological research for

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344

sustainable development goals and individual profes-

sional growth.

Positive feedback from students proves the efﬁ-

ciency of using ICT while training future ecologists.

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