GOOGLE WORKSPACE AND THE BULGARIAN UNIVERSITIES: WE ARE IMPRESSED HOW VFU "CHERNORIZETS HRABAR" USES TECHNOLOGIES FOR EDUCATION. IT CAN BECOME WORLDWIDE EXPERIENCE
03 May 2022
The first official working meeting between representatives of Google and Bulgarian universities took place last week. The event was organized by the Center for Creative Learning - the only partner of Google Cloud specializing in Education in Bulgaria. The meeting was attended by 77 representatives from 25 universities across the country. The aim was for the Google Workspace team to present the opportunities for cooperation with Bulgarian higher education and show good practices from organizations that have already implemented Google technologies.
Prof. D.Sc. Dimitar Kanev - Vice-Rector of VFU "Chernorizets Hrabar" presented the progress of Varna Free University in the digital transformation of its educational activities through the use and development of Google Workspace tools.
"By using Google Workspace, we changed the way we teach and learn - over 5,000 students and over 300 teachers worked in this environment and successfully overcame the challenges of the pandemic," said Prof. Kanev. "But that's not all. With Google Workspace we have digitized and completely changed the way of managing the processes at the University - from planning, organizing and administrating services, to feedback, control and evaluation of the results achieved in teaching and research." Prof. Kanev also presented some of the successfully implemented developments based on Google tools. Examples included the development of electronic registers of educational documentation, academic staff and quality management system documents, ensuring publicity of activities and processes and the ability to an effective control to be performed by management, as well as internal and external audits in an electronic environment.
On the basis of Google Workspace in the last year an information system for planning, monitoring and evaluation of the development of the academic staff, the educational activity, scientific and publishing activity has also been developed and implemented. It integrates a compliance system for managing the regulatory compliance of the main activities and processes with the current legislation, strategic documents for the development of higher education and science and the University's own standards.
Google Workspace tools have significantly helped the University put students at the center of its work. The main administrative services have been digitized and this has made them faster, more convenient and of better quality. A valuable management asset is the feedback from more than ten thousand surveys conducted in the electronic environment on the satisfaction of students with the teaching of the studied disciplines and specialties, as well as the detailed analytical information on the student attendance in the classes.
Prof. Kanev thanked the team of the Center for Creative Learning for the joint work and expressed confidence that the combination of the commitment of the management of VFU "Chernorizets Hrabar" and the professionalism of the Center, the future success in digital transformation is guaranteed.
At the working meeting, presentations were also made by Prof. Dr. Miroslav Karabaliev - Vice-Rector for Research and International Affairs at the Thracian University in Stara Zagora and Stilyan Minchev - The University Information Center at Paisii Hilendarski University of Plovdiv.
In all three universities, the platform is the main means of communication.
"This meeting was extremely valuable for us because we saw how, in practice, our technology is used. I am impressed by what the representatives of the three universities presented and I believe that it can be applied all over the world ", said Alexandra Staneva - Sales Specialist for Google Workspace in the public sector for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
On behalf of Google, the meeting was also attended by Frida Rössel, Head of Google Cloud for the Public Sector in Scandinavia, Central and Eastern Europe, and Petr Dupak, Head of Google Cloud for Industry in Central and Eastern Europe.
The Center for Creative Training was represented by the manager Dr. Alexander Angelov, and a special guest in the event was Prof. Dr. Galin Tsokov from the Department of Qualification and Professional Development of Pedagogical Specialists at Paisii Hilendarski University of Plovdiv.