We are pleased to inform you about the successful completion of a series of online courses for students of biological specialties, which was organized by our Department as part of a project funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Due to the war, many students and teachers were forced to leave their universities, which led to interruptions and gaps in their education. Our project, the ‘Modular online course ‘Integrative Life Sciences,’ aimed to help motivated students close the gaps in their education with high-quality online courses in various biological disciplines. It was initiated by Olga Garaschuk from the Institute of Physiology at the University of Tübingen (Germany), and Volodymyr Lushchak from our Department.
The courses offered during the project were attended by 658 students from more than 40 Ukrainian universities. The majority of the audience was made up of students from war-affected regions, including V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University and Oles Honchar Dnipro National University. A significant number of students from the universities of Kyiv, Lviv, and our university were also represented.
Undergraduate and graduate students of our Department took an active part in the courses, namely:
- Students: Nadiia Semkiv, Viktoriia Zadarko, Mariia Rak, Taisiia Kindrat, Daria Dodon, Khrystyna Fediv, Viktoriia Nykolyshyn, Oksana Vasylyshyn, Olha Bulii, Dmytro Shebunchak, Petro Hats, Oleksandr Koniv, Yelyzaveta Mysliuk, Anastasiia Tkachyk, Iryna Yatskiv, Illia Yatsyna, Anna Okhovych, Uliana Kilchytska, Alina Tutka, Vasyl Boichuk, Solomiia Radyk, Viktoriia Zadarko, Mariia Koshka, Bozhena Luniv;
- Ph.D. students: Vitalii Balatskyi, Oleh Demianchuk, Nadiia Stefanyshyn, Vladyslav Berezovskyi, Marian Ivanochko.
Students were offered eight online courses that complemented the curricula of their universities: integrated course “Life Sciences” (biochemistry, biophysics, molecular biology, physiology), integrated course “Microbes, Viruses and Infections” (microbiology, virology, immunology), and “Bioinformatics”, “Tools for Improving Teaching and Outreach in Life Sciences”, “Molecular and Cellular Neurophysiology”, “The Life Cycle of the Research Project”, “Microscopy and Instrumental Methods in Biology”, and “Mathematical Statistics for Biologists”. In addition to the staff of our Department, teachers from Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Oles Honchar Dnipro National University, and other universities and research institutes were involved in teaching. And we are proud that our Department was the focal point of such a national project.
We are grateful to the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for almost 200 scholarships ranging from 200 to 600 euros awarded to students who needed financial support due to the war. It should be noted that last year, the German Academic Exchange Service also supported the teaching of two intensive online courses for Ukrainian students as part of our previous project. We hope that we will be able to conduct similar online courses in 2024, which we will announce on the project website.
