Structural and functional analysis of future IT specialists' readiness to use cloud services in professional activities

Abstract

The study is aimed at theoretically substantiating the structural and functional characteristics of future IT specialists' readiness to use cloud services in professional activity and at developing a criteria-based diagnostic framework for its assessment. Methods. To achieve the objectives, a set of theoretical methods was applied: analysis of psychological, pedagogical, methodological, and professional literature to determine the state of development of the problem; synthesis and generalization of scientific approaches to defining professional readiness and competence; systematization of the competences specified in higher education standards for specialties 121/F2 Software Engineering, 122/F3 Computer Science, and 123/F7 Computer Engineering; modeling to construct the readiness structure. Results. The concept of future IT specialists' readiness to use cloud services in professional activities has been clarified as an integral personal formation that reflects the unity of motivational-value, cognitive, operational, and communicative characteristics of the individual and ensures the ability to apply cloud services confidently, consciously, and responsibly in solving professional tasks. A four-component structure of readiness has been substantiated, including cognitive-knowledge, activity-practical, communicative-organizational, and deontological-personal components. Functional links between the readiness components and the competencies defined by higher education standards have been determined. A criteria-based diagnostic framework has been developed, comprising cognitive, operational-activity, communicative-organizational, and motivational-reflective criteria as well as four levels of readiness formation: low, medium, sufficient, and high. Conclusions. Future IT specialists' readiness to use cloud services is a multicomponent formation whose constituents are mutually conditioned. The proposed approach can be used for further designing diagnostic tools and improving the professional training of IT students.