Teaching Informatics and Mathematics to History Students: Experience of Lobachevsky University of Nizhny Novgorod

Abstract

The article is based on the report made by the author at the scientific and methodological seminar of the Association "History and Computer" and the Faculty of History of Moscow State University, which was held on January 2024. The subject of the analysis are the names and hourly volume (in academic hours) of disciplines of informatics and mathematical cycle of the National Research Nizhny Novgorod State University named after N.I. Lobachevsky or Lobachevsky University) from 1984 to 2023. N.I. Lobachevsky National Research State University from 1984 to 2023, the names of graduate qualification works made at the Department of Information Technologies in Humanities from 2007 to 2023, the names of teaching aids for 2010 to 2023, published by teachers of the department. It is revealed that the subjects of information and mathematical cycle for 40 years of their teaching in IMOMI NNGU have become more specialised and practice-oriented, both in bachelor's and master's degrees. The restored initial period of teaching quantitative methods in history in the 1980s, based on the recollections of colleagues and the first lecturer S.V. Subbotin, is of independent importance. A complete list of information and mathematical disciplines in 2023-2024 is given. The basic information about the Department of Information Technologies in Humanities Studies, which has been responsible for teaching the above disciplines since 2007, is given. It is found that since 2007 the ITGI department has graduated 86 students, 31 per cent of whom used quantitative methods and computer technologies in their final qualification works. The importance of cloud technologies in the possibilities of distributed project work of undergraduate students is shown. It is concluded that the main formed information competence of historians is a critical attitude to the digitisation of historical sources and their publication on the Internet.