Enabling Resilient Educational Support Network during COVID-19 Pandemic for Undergraduate and Second Career Seeking Students

During times of local and national quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic, universities had to close campuses and expediently convert operations and services from face-to-face to virtual learning environments, including virtual classrooms, learning communities, offices, and meeting/advising rooms. Many engineering faculty and students experienced personal, technical, and psychosocial challenges associated with this dramatically altered reality, which may have significant and unprecedented effects on their personal and academic lives. The current study presents results from a needs assessment survey examining the perceptions of 157 engineering students majoring in mechanical and aerospace engineering about the strengths and challenges exhibited by their professors/instructors as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, we describe the instructional efforts and approaches taken by faculty to resolve the practical challenges because of the pandemic. Student perceptions of faculty effectiveness and support were examined by analyzing means and frequencies of survey items. Results revealed that on average, engineering students were positive in their perceptions of the effectiveness and resources/support provided by their professors/instructors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Qualitative data from an open-ended question where coded and quantified. The theme that emerged most frequently reflected engineering students' need for professors/instructors to demonstrate flexibility/leniency with assignments, quizzes, exams, and deadlines. This short paper provides critical assessment of the gaps in institutional services and resources and provide the required feedback, while informing the institution and the research community about the ways to develop a resilient support network for engineering students in the times of crisis. Future work will consider how student responses change under the altering societal and work/academic conditions with or without COVID-19 pandemic being present at that time. Results from the current study also provide recommendations for effective online instruction in the future. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022

The impact of modern macroeconomic factors on the development of the economic strategies of companies

The coronavirus pandemic has had an unprecedented im- pact on the global economy, and has significantly increased the uncertainty inherent in the external environment. The factor of possible lockdown is added to the parameters of uncertainty of macroeconomic indicators of domestic and foreign markets. If companies could predict inflation dy- namics or consumer sentiment in some way, it is nonethe- less difficult to predict another outbreak of the pandemic. The negative effects of the pandemic have had a highly significant impact on the economic situation of business- es, which makes this factor especially important for the development of economic strategies. The aim of the study is to determine the impact of changes in macroeconomic variables due to crises on the development of a company’s economic strategy. The study was conducted through lin- ear regression models, which were tested by means of the least squares method. The COVID-19 pandemic effect was introduced into the models through the use of a dummy variable. The results of the study showed that companies ex- pect a decrease in sales, a reduction in the wages of employ- ees and indeed the number of employees themselves. The expectations of businesses regarding the volume of foreign investment and their own investment costs have worsened. Businesses are changing their economic strategies from de- velopment strategies to survival strategies accompanied by cost reductions. At the same time, macroeconomic indica- tors, including the inflation index and the exchange rate, are expected to deteriorate. The results obtained can be used to assess the impact of COVID-19 on business strategies and the economic expectations of businesses. The study opens new areas for further research, in particular the sec- toral impact of the pandemic on the development of compa- nies’ economic strategies. The methodological limitation is that the industry specifics of companies were not taken into account. In addition, the pandemic impact data available for analysis are currently limited to the four quarters of 2020. The limitation pertaining to implementation is that the im- pact of the pandemic on the company’s strategy may differ depending on the field of the company’s activity. © 2022, WSB University. All rights reserved.

Psychological and Pedagogical Support of Students with Special Educational Needs in a Higher Education Institution

The article deals with the peculiarities of psychological and pedagogical support of students with special educational needs in the conditions of higher education institution. Peculiarities of creation and functioning of the team of psychological and pedagogical support and inclusive groups as an innovative form of support of students with special educational needs are considered. The main forms and methods of teaching are determined. The regulatory legal base on this issue is analyzed. The experience of the Center for Social and Educational Integration and Inclusive Rehabilitation and Social Tourism “Without Barriers” (Faculty of Social and Psychological Education of Pavlo Tychyna Uman State Pedagogical University) on working with students with special educational needs is revealed. The main mechanisms of psychological support for students with special educational needs are identified, including psychological diagnostics, psychological counseling, psychological support, psychological education, psychotherapy, group work, pedagogical support. The results of the research are highlighted. In particular, a questionnaire was used to determine the level of students’ adaptation to the conditions of the educational process, to determine the range of problems faced by students with special educational needs. The following methods have been used: study of socio-psychological adaptation of K. Rogers - R. Diamond, “Diagnosis of communicative and organizational tendencies (COT-2)”, “Diagnosis of leadership skill” (E. Zharikov, E. Krushelnytsky), “Assessment of the level of sociability” by Riahovsky. A comparative data analysis for the last 2 years has been carried out. Particular attention has been paid to the training of students with special educational needs in terms of distance learning, which is caused by the spread of COVID-19. Generalized advice on teaching students with special educational needs within distance learning is offered, in particular, adaptation of educational material, increase of audiovisual means, psychological support of participants of educational process. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.