Managing the Development of University Teachers’ Digital Pedagogical Competencies in Theory and in Practice

Abstract

The article studies the development of higher educational institution teachers’ digital pedagogical competencies. Considering the current situation of uncertainty in higher education, the rapid change of digital platforms and services, the growing dynamics of changes and the emergence of new knowledge in the sphere of digital didactics, the authors propose a concept of forming a university digital transformation team. To meet the demand for high-quality digital educational products, there are required special organizational solutions, including the creation of pedagogical teams. The purpose of the article is to develop a model for assessing individual and team digital pedagogical competencies, which allows making managerial decisions and eliminating the lack of competencies in a team at the stage of designing digital educational products and services. The study analyzed the existing models of digital pedagogical competencies and drew the conclusion on the need to refine them with specific tools for assessing current individual and team digital pedagogical competencies for the development and implementation of an educational product or project. Based on the model proposed, the paper puts forward a general concept of a professional retraining program, which consists of three areas of assessment: technical, pedagogical, subject (area of research, direction of training). Based on the analysis of Ural Federal University’s experience of implementing distance learning using digital educational resources, the authors give recommendations on how to improve the efficiency of the development teams and the implementation of digital educational products. This publication might be of interest for managers of the higher education system, as well as for scholars and teachers interested in digitalization, digital didactics, digital transformation of universities and individualization of education.