Moral and ethical upbringing of students’ personality: experience of Volgograd Institute of Management

Gavrish Alesya Dmitrievna ORCID: 0000-0002-4791-5852 PhD in Philology Senior Lecturer, Department of Linguistics and Intercultural Communication, Volgograd Institute of Management – branch of RANEPA 400078, Russia, Volgogradskaya oblast', g. Volgograd, ul. Gertsena, 10, aud. 407 prostozachem@mail.ru Other publications by this author     Kompaneeva Liudmila Gennadievna ORCID: 0000-0001-8328-013X PhD in Pedagogy Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics and Intercultural Communication, Volgograd Institute of Management – branch of RANEPA 400078, Russia, Volgograd region, Volgograd, Herzen str., 10, room 407 kompaneyeva@mail.ru Other publications by this author     Gulyaeva Evgeniya Vyacheslavovna ORCID: 0000-0003-1605-8576 PhD in Philology Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Linguistics and Intercultural Communication, Volgograd Institute of Management – branch of RANEPA 400078, Russia, Volgograd region, Volgograd, Herzen str., 10, room 407 guevgenia@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Platonova Dar'ya Olegovna ORCID: 0000-0002-8562-2970 PhD in Philology Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics and intercultural communication, Volgograd Institute of Management – branch of RANEPA 400078, Russia, Volgograd region, Volgograd, Herzen str., 10, room 407 danyush7777@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Introduction

Sustainable development is the development of a society in which human living conditions are improved and the negative impact on the environment is minimized. Some of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals are: quality education, reduced inequalities, responsible consumption and production, partnerships for the goals, peace, justice, and strong institutions ^[1]. Proper upbringing of students at higher education institutions and involving them in extracurricular activities contributes to their ethical and moral upbringing and creative development, which helps to achieve the goals of sustainable development of society. We suppose that it is the university that forms the main research and personnel potential, that is, social capital of the state, which is the most important factor of sustainable development of the country ^{[2, p. 47-50]}. In 2020 the educational system of the Russian Federation was amended to include extracurricular activities in educational programs and the educational process of universities as a whole in order to intensify moral upbringing process. The year 2023 was even declared the Year of Tutors, emphasizing the importance of mentoring in education.

At the same time, the main assistant in attracting the largest number of students to cultural and mass events are digital technologies ^{[3, p. 584-587]}. Digital technologies help people to interact with different sources of information and enhance the ability of people from different linguocultures to communicate with each other. However, the information environment is full of negativity, and nowadays can become a tool of manipulation. Therefore, it is important to teach students the principles of information ecology in order to optimize their relationship with global information flows ^{[4, p. 11-15]}; ^{[5, p. 251-282]}. In this regard, we consider that it is necessary for teachers of higher education institution to study in more detail the possibilities of new digital and educational technologies precisely considering the principles of environmental friendliness, economy of resources and ethical standards of communication.

The scientific novelty of this research lies in the complex studying of the possibilities and prospects of applying digital technologies in the extracurricular activities of higher education institutions (on the example of Volgograd Institute of Management) in the context of sustainable development.

Literature review

The theoretical basis of the research was the works of Russian and foreign psychologists, educators, and methodologists. The analysis of highly citated multidisciplinary studies has shown that much attention has recently been paid both to the use of digital technologies and to the moral and ethical upbringing in the educational process in higher education institutions. The digital transformation of the modern higher education system and the ways of increasing digital literacy in the context of the educational process are described and analyzed by such scientists as S. Aris and S. Teoh ^[6], A. Haleem and M. Javaid ^{[7, p. 275-285]}, M. Abdulrahaman and N. Faruk ^[8] and also by A. García-Hernández ^[9]. Advantages and disadvantages of using smartphones in the learning process and digital technologies in the educational and moral upbringing process are described by A. Morozov, I. Mukhametzyanov and O. Evdokimova ^[10], B. Nazarova ^{[11, p. 251-256]}, E. Aralova ^{[12, p. 162-171]} and V. Kruglov ^{[13, p. 114-122]}. V. Remizova and T. Nesterova consider that increasing freedom and responsibility in students in the educational process is a must for sustainable development, but initially, future teacher’s attitude towards these characteristics should be changed ^[14]. A. Suslov, I. Belova, and E. Litinskaya examine patriotic education as an aspect of sustainable development society and put forward the idea that active participating in different extra-curricular activities contributes to the development of students’ moral self-determination ^[15]. The analysis of the above studies shows that a high degree of adaptation to constant changes, critical thinking, creativity, reflection, the ability to concentrate on the main things are necessary for safe and comfortable functioning of the students in the flow of rapidly changing information. At the same time, the main task of teachers is to help to rise up the culture of efficient media consumption ^[16] among students, to teach them how to fill the media environment only with a positive and a useful content, for example, videos, presentations, projects. It is necessary to increase the efficiency of students' use of digital tools and to motivate them to do productive activities in the informational space.

Materials and methodology

In order to identify the prospects of using digital tools and technologies in the educational process at the university, we conducted a comprehensive theoretical and practical analysis and proposed some ways to solve the identified problems of using digital technologies during the extra curriculum activities. The study was conducted from September 2022 to July 2023 on the basis of the Volgograd Institute of Management. We monitored the process of moral and ethical upbringing conducted by the Department of Linguistics and Intercultural Communication. In the process of monitoring the activities, a number of difficulties in the use of digital technologies by students were identified. To identify the level of formation of digital skills and their application, an anonymous survey of 194 junior full-time students and 48 lecturers was organized and quantified. The next step was to conduct a comparative analysis of the results with similar surveys conducted by the authors earlier ^[17]. The monitoring and survey revealed some problems with the use of new technologies by students. In response, we have reviewed the content of 11 humanitarian full-time bachelor and specialist curricula to assess whether they have a digital component in its content. While conducting this research, we relied primarily on the theoretical developments of leading modern methodologists as well as we considered our own pedagogical experience within the dynamic transformation of socio-pedagogical information processes.

Results

The conducted complex study of the introduction of digital technologies in the process of moral and ethical upbringing of students at the Volgograd Institute of Management made it possible to identify some positive trends. According to the results of the monitoring of the conduct of cultural extra curriculum events, implementing moral upbringing tasks, it was found out that the Department of Linguistics and Intercultural Communication of the Volgograd Institute of Management is the organizer of a whole number of different cultural activities. For example, its lecturers annually organize a patriotic poetry competition «Tomorrow was the war» among students and pupils of the Volgograd city. This competition is accompanied by the active use of multimedia tools, such as computer presentations, video films, music background. These digital means help the participants to achieve emotional reaction among the audience. The International Native Language Festival «Slovo» annually introduces the culture and traditions of different ethnic groups and nationalities, living in the territory of Russia, for the young people of the Volgograd city. All the festival participants are actively using digital technologies, such as the presentations of self-recorded video clips or as a demonstration of photo series. In addition, phonetic competitions in three languages: English, German and French are traditionally held. This event supposes that students and schoolchildren record videos with expressive reading of poems and prosaic passages. Previously, this event was held only for the students of the city of Volgograd. But the transition to an online format, using digital technologies, allowed to significantly expand the audience, and as a result the competition acquired the status of all-Russian, uniting schoolchildren and students from different cities and educational stages. Within the period of research, cultural and educational quizzes «Do you know classic literature», «International geographical quiz» and «The great and mighty Russian language» were held in an online interactive form using Google-forms. While participating in them students performed a variety of text, audio and video assignments. Students solved tasks using their gadgets, being at that moment in any place, which greatly increased the number of people willing to participate in the events and allowed to attract students from different universities throughout the country. To register for a quiz, the participants filled in Yandex Forms, which significantly reduced the time of analyzing incoming applications by lecturers of the department. In addition, the technology of videoconferencing is actively used, for example, in the organization of all-Russian student international scientific-practical conferences of students «Family values in Russia and Kazakhstan: socio-psychological features», and «Linguistic bases of professional activity: experience of foreign countries». These conferences unite students from such cities as Volgograd, Moscow, Taraz and Almaty. On the World Environment Day, the roundtable discussion was held with the use of new digital technology «Yandex Telebridge» for students from the Volgograd Institute of Management and Moscow Polytechnic University. This event was dedicated to the discussion of environmental problems of the urban environment in big cities and the ways of solving such ecological global problems. For example, in 2023 students shared with each other computer presentations of their group projects on this topic, and also an interactive poster competition was organized between them.

As for the anonymous survey, conducted for 194 students and 48 lecturers at Volgograd institute of Management, its results confirmed the need of conducting more various extracurricular online activities. We’ll present the main findings in the form of quantitative data. Only 142 first-year students (interviewed by the end of the academic year) could correctly create and show computer presentations, using the program «PowerPoint». 125 students had the skill of efficient searching on the internet for relevant and reliable information for making presentations. At the same time, most of the respondents (107 students) explained that they simply copied information from the first link on the website «Yandex» search engine and used the information presented there without any editing. Only a quarter of the students (50 students) and 75% of teachers (36 educators) know how to launch an online conference service, to invite participants there and to organize an online conference, how to pass the word to another participant of an online event, etc. Only 10 students and 5 teachers of all the respondents can use Yandex Forms to organize various kinds of quizzes, which reduces the effectiveness of attracting a large number of students to participate in extracurricular activities.

The analysis of the content of the new curriculum for the years 2023-2024 showed that there is a positive trend of development of our institute in the direction of digitalization. For example, in the curriculum of the first-grade students (both bachelors and specialists) 2 new elective courses have been introduced. They are called «Digital society, introduction to artificial intelligence and chat bots» and «Digital society and management of digital reputation». Of course, the introduction of these disciplines will help to guide students' use of modern digital technologies, will help to increase the level of their digital literacy. It is also important to teach students the principles of security in the digital environment because security is the basic need of any person ^[18].

Discussion

A number of positive tendencies can be noted according to the results of our research. The extracurricular events organized at the Volgograd Institute of Management, introduce students to public life, acquaint them with the traditional system of values, represented and discussed by the participants of cultural and mass events. In addition, online events teach students to use digital technologies competently and effectively for their self-development, teach them to bring creative projects into the media environment. As for the monitoring of extracurricular events, it showed us that students already know how to successfully use the functions of their smartphones. They photograph the events, and they know how to make video recordings for their projects. Students are also able to shoot small news stories about cultural events of the institute for posting them on social networks and on the official website of the institute. However, some negative aspects include the fact that many undergraduate students still have an insufficient development of digital skills. Sometimes they have difficulties in using digital tools independently during global online events, organized by other universities outside the Volgograd Institute of Management.

The data obtained during the analysis of the anonymous survey led us to conclusion that it would be useful to add to the curriculum of all the higher educational institutions more digital training aspects, connected with the proper and safe usage of modern digital technologies. The introduction of new IT-related disciplines into the curriculum will not only allow to develop critical thinking skills of students, but also to acquaint them with different ways of working with information in the global media environment and, probably, will help to reduce the possible negative influence of social networks and artificial technologies on the formation of moral personality.

As a result of discussion of this research with our colleagues from the Department of Linguistics and Intercultural Communication, we came to some common conclusions. We believe that the teaching of new IT-disciplines should focus on practical implementation of digital skills by the students. It is necessary to demonstrate to undergraduate students how to use the technologies of videoconferencing, how to make correct computer presentations, how to fill in and create online forms for participation in various cultural and scientific events, such as conferences and competitions. We believe that the new elective courses «Digital society, introduction to artificial intelligence and chat bots» and «Digital society and management of digital reputation», implemented on the basis of the Volgograd Institute of Management, could have an open access for all the students and teachers at other universities throughout the Russian Federation.

Conclusion

Nurturing personal qualities that contribute to sustainable development goals is a relevant issue for researchers and educators all around the world. It is necessary to develop the values of respectful and productive online communication. In the context of the sustainable development of civilization, the interaction of all nations and cultures is necessary to change the interaction between society and nature, preserve it for future generations and ensure a secure future for all the people. Education, especially the moral and ethical upbringing of an individual, contributes to the formation of new views on society, new cultural values, and the ability to interact with representatives of different cultures. The educational system in higher education institutions should be based on the formation of a close relationship between the education and moral upbringing of young people. It is during the period of study in higher educational institutions that the final formation of the moral personality takes place.

The conducted research showed that proper organization of moral and ethical upbringing work in the universities attracts students to extracurricular activities, which promote the realization of creative potential, reveals new positive personal qualities in the students. The use of new digital technologies and tools, such as smartphones and their apps, videoconferencing services, video recording and presentation development programmes, undoubtedly helps to make the educational and upbringing process easier. All these technical means make the process of creation accessible, attractive, exciting, and visible, and involve more students in extracurricular activities.

To draw the line, it should be noted that the ways of developing efficient, safe, and sustainable online communication during the extracurricular activities in the media environment are not yet sufficiently discussed by the methodologists and educators. This research is to be further continued within another higher educational institutions in order to improve this situation.