We present here good practices in enhancing student services or administrative processes with digital tools.
Look at the Online Services menu at Civil Engineering Faculty website. digital services are pragmatically grouped under a single, dedicated menu. Good idea! Key initiatives include the use of Microsoft Forms for requesting student certificates ( Form). The faculty facilitates the selection of elective courses for the upcoming academic year through a (dedicated online platform). Furthermore, the faculty has implemented online scheduling for the secretariat using the Job Router platform ( Programari online secretariat). Students at the Construction Faculty can obtain their student certificates by filling this Form.
Using Moodle, an open source educational platform, at the Faculty of Automation and Computer Science. Moodle platform has served approximately 8,500 students since its integration into teaching practices at the Department of Computer Science. Current Moodle courses taught at the Computer Science (CS) Department include courses in fields such as: "Computer Programming", "Operating Systems", "Information and System Security", "Artificial Intelligence", "Computer Networks", "Fundamental Algorithms", "Logical Programming", or "Numerical systems", with 15 to 30 running simultaneously each year within BA or MA programs. Moodle is not only used for regular semester courses but also for a variety of other educational activities, such as study groups, student competitions, and the coordination of Bachelor's and Master's theses. For the latter, a notable aspect is that the platform facilitates the digital archiving of these theses. Moodle provides a practical and useful internal solution for preserving and accessing these materials and creating a valuable repository of student research. For those interested in exploring Moodle, please ask Adrian.Colesa at cs.utcluj.ro to add you as a course creator.
Spotlight on Digital Student Communities: The Cybersecurity Circle at UTCN. “For the past 5–6 years, we’ve been running the Cybersecurity Circle—an online space where students from our cybersecurity master's program can connect over extracurricular activities closely tied to the field of cybersecurity,” shares Adrian Coleșa. Started on the Moodle platform, the circle originally focused on cybersecurity competitions, but as word spread and interest grew, the circle welcomed participants from other master's programs, undergraduate courses, and even high school students. “We’ve had students from various programs join us and we’ve been glad to see the community expand —from other master's programs or undergraduate studies, occasionally even from other faculties or even high school students, usually friends of current members, but for the most part, we have students from the Computer Science program.”
Over time, the scope of the discussions has evolved. “We realized that students’ interest went beyond competitions, so we broadened the topics we cover,” Adrian Coleșa explains. The circle meetings, fondly referred to as “club meetings” or “workshops,” are held every two to three weeks on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. The topics are dynamic, ranging from: recent and significant cybersecurity events, techniques and tools used in incident investigations or system vulnerability testing, sharing experiences and exercises from cybersecurity competitions, and guest presentations from industry professionals or alumni pursuing advanced research in cybersecurity.
To support communication and the exchange of ideas, the circle initially used Moodle for communication but transitioned to Microsoft Teams during the pandemic. “Teams has been a game-changer for us,” says Coleșa. “It allows for online meetings, recordings for those who can’t attend live, announcements, and a shared space for our growing group. Over time, we’ve amassed around 160 members on the Teams channel, though not all remain active.”
The Cybersecurity Circle stands as a good practice on how digital tools can create and empower student communities, enabling them to stay connected, share knowledge, and grow together.