"DIGITALIZATION OF THE ECONOMY AS A FACTOR OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT"

On May 25-26, 2021 Pryazovskyi State Technical University conducted International scientific-practical conference “DIGITALIZATION OF THE ECONOMY AS A FACTOR OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT” which was organized in the framework of “Digitalization of the economy as an element of sustainable development of Ukraine and Tajikistan” (DigEco) 618270-EPP-1-2020-1-LT-EPPKA2-CBHE- JP. The Conference summarized the project results of first 6 months of DigEco implementation:

1) Work package 1 was implemented on a full scale. All Partners signed partnership agreements, all of Partners presented SWOT analyzes of the digitalization at each target universities, DigEco teachers created International Work Groups to develop innovative curricular. The consortium faces a number of challengers because of the coronavirus and have to refuse to travel to European Universities, but consortium rescheduled DigEco trainings and conducted them online. Moreover, it was the grate example to show the ways of the implementation of modern digital educational tools in practice. All of participants have find the trainings interesting, useful and interactive;

2) The project team has created DigEco web platform. This is the project site, which is managed by Mikolas Romeris University and each Partner created their own project page;

3) European partners delivered 12 training on each DigEco curriculum for target teachers and stakeholders. Eleven teachers of Project countries (Lithuania, Slovenia and Germany) were involved; 60 hours of trainings in total were delivered;

4) DigEco reached the indicator of the number of trained target teachers. It is planned to train 87 persons, but thanks to zoom, 300 participants took part in the trainings of DigEco curricular. And very important issue that not only DigEco teachers but the participants of the other Erasmus + CBHE projects were involved at the trainings as well;

5) The main point of the Work package 2 is development of innovative teaching materials, which never exist before the Digeco in educational process of target universities. DigEo International Collaborative Groups worked well together, they developed the strategy of the joint implementation and to this day DigEco has 13 innovative syllabuses, developed according modern trends and requirements;

6) The critical issue of Digeco is purchasing of equipment and DigEco has to do it before the pilot teaching will start. Now the project is registered at the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and Ukrainian Partners are on the stage of the creation of the

invitation to tender. For partners from Tajikistan there are no needs for the registration and purchasing of equipment at this country can running according the schedule;

7) As to project quality control, DigEco created Quality Control Board, which consist of representatives of each partner. The project has developed Quality Control System, which was presented at the kick-off meeting. The system includes number of steps among which is conducting survey after all significant activities to be sure that the project goes in the wright way or to improve weak issues if any. During 6 project months consortium conducted 2 surveys and 1 is coming soon;

8) To disseminate project results, to involve as much stakeholders as possible and to insure sustainable development we use traditional and not traditional informational resources. DigEco created group in Facebook, Instagram, disseminate information via local TV, Radio, Newspapers, conducted meetings with stakeholders, local authorities etc. All of this activities you can find in Internet, at webpages of Partners, you can join the group at Facebook or just visit responsible department.

The purpose of the conference is to consolidate the efforts of the scientific community and practical experience in the development of the digital economy of Ukraine and partner countries, taking into account the experience of European countries. The aim is to analyze the development and implementation in the educational process of innovative methods of teaching digital economy in higher education institutions. Participants will research the improvements of inclusive education at the expense of use of digital technologies. Development of international cooperation, establishment of business contacts and commercial relations with production and scientific organizations within the project “Digitalization of the economy as an element of sustainable development of Ukraine and Tajikistan” (DigEco) 618270-EPP-1-2020-1-LT-EPPKA2-CBHE- JP.

The current conference is a great opportunity to disseminate scientific achievements in the field of digital economy and make these achievements accessible for different target groups, especially for teachers and students to use them in educational process.

Institutions, which are not the DigEco consortium members, took part at the conference as well. It means that all of them are interested in project results and such kind of cooperation will insure synergy and benefit of international collaboration.