Empowering learning process in ukrainian higher educational establishments by means of e-learning technologies

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Empowering learning process in ukrainian higher educational establishments by means of e-learning technologies

Hubina O.

Губіна О. Ю. Розширення процесу навчання у закладах вищої освіти України засобами технологій електронного навчання

У статті розкрито впровадження інноваційного електронного навчання у навчальний процес ЗВО України, його організаційні та освітні основи. Дослідження цього явища здійснюється на інституційнихрівнях таких вищих навчальних закладів, як Відкритий міжнародний університет розвитку людини «Україна», Сумський національний аграрний університет, Київський національний університет імені Тараса Шевченка, Києво-Могилянська академія, Український католицький університет та Львівська IT школа. Мета дослідження - вивчити організацію навчального процесу на основі ключових принципів електронного навчання. Визначено, що дистанційне навчання здійснюється в рамках Регламенту діяльності університетів, де визначено їх основні напрями. Особливу увагу приділено принциповим завданням університетів, які забезпечують розширення доступу до якісного навчання, індивідуалізацію навчання, підвищення ефективності навчання. Відповідно до ключових завдань організовується онлайн-навчальний процес з його навчальними планами, формами та учасниками. Навчальний процес базується на платформі Moodle. Це сприяє підвищенню ефективності формування знань шляхом впровадження модернізованих навчально-методичних матеріалів; стимулює інтерес до вивчення дисциплін з використанням інноваційних інформаційно-комунікаційних технологій; оперативність зворотного зв'язку та можливість безпосередньої консультації з викладачем. З точки зору форм навчання, було проаналізовано дві з них: електронне навчання з виключно онлайн практичними заняттями, індивідуальною роботою, навчанням та процедурами оцінювання; та гібридне, яке поєднує формальну та онлайн форми навчання, такі як: лекції, лабораторні роботи, практичні заняття, семінари, консультації. Зроблено висновок, що зазначені університети сприяли академічній інтенсифікації, забезпеченню високої якості освітніх послуг завдяки використанню інноваційного електронного навчання.

Ключові слова: гібридний університет, інформаційно-комунікаційні технології, освітня платформа Moodle, індивідуалізація, онлайн-проект.

The article reveals the implementation of innovative E-learning in the educational process of Ukrainian universities, its organizational and educational foundations. The investigation of this phenomenon is provided on the institutional levels of such higher educational institutions as Open International University of Human Development `Ukraine', Sumy National Agrarian University, Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University, Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, the Ukrainian Catholic University and the Lviv IT School. The purpose of the research is to study the arrangement of educational process based on the key principles of E-Learning. It was identified that distance learning is provided within the frameworks of Regulatory document of the Universities ' activities where their main directions are outlined. Particular attention is paid to the principle tasks of the universities that enable the expanded access to high-quality learning, individualization of studying, increasing of the effectiveness of education. According to the key tasks, the online learning process with its curriculums, forms and participants is organized. The learning process is based on the Moodle platform. It contributes to the improvement of the efficiency of knowledge formation through the introduction of upgraded teaching educational materials; stimulates interest in the study of the disciplines using innovative information and communication technologies; responsiveness of the feedback and the possibility of direct consultation with the teacher. In terms of the forms of learning, there were analyzed two of them: the completely online learning with the exclusively online practical classes, individual work, training and assessment procedures and the hybrid one that combines the formal and online forms of learning, such as: lectures, laboratory work, practical classes, seminars, consultations. It has been concluded that the mentioned universities have contributed to the academic intensification, ensuring high quality of educational services due to the use of innovative E-Learning.

Key words: hybrid university, information and communication technologies, the Moodle educational platform, individualization, online project.

(статтю подано мовою оригіналу) learning technologie online

The formation of Ukrainian information society includes the qualitative modernization of the educational sector, first of all, the introduction of new types of education, in particular E-Learning. Studying within this system becomes possible due to the use of the innovative information and communication technologies, distance learning principles and the obtaining of relevant abilities, skills and competencies [1].

Thus, the necessity to reform the national higher education system is emphasized in the following government documents: Law of Ukraine `About Higher Education' (2014), `Education' (2017), `Scientific and Scientific-Technical Activity' (2017). The priority areas of the state educational policy are defined as:

promoting of the development of lifelong learning;

open access to higher education;

integration of Ukrainian higher education system into the European one under the condition of keeping and developing of achievements and progressive traditions of the national higher education;

government support of teacher training courses within the priority branches of economic activity, areas of fundamental and applied scientific research, scientific and pedagogical activities;

government support of educational, scientific and innovative activities of universities, academies, institutes, colleges, in particular, by providing tax, fee and other mandatory payment benefits to higher educational institutions to stimulate such activities;

open access to the formation of the structure and scope of educational and professional training of higher education specialists [8].

The Decree of the President of Ukraine “The National Strategy for the Development of Education in Ukraine for the Period Until 2021” emphasizes the need to modernize the content of education..

The purpose of the National Strategy is: increasing the availability of high-quality, competitive education in accordance with the requirements of innovative sustainable development of society and the economy; ensuring the personal development of a person in accordance with his individual abilities, needs based on lifelong learning.

The main tasks of the National Strategy in the field of higher education include: development of standards of higher education, oriented on the competence approach, coordinated with the new structure of educational and qualification (educational and scientific) levels of higher education and with the National Framework of Qualifications; creation of research universities, expansion of autonomy of higher educational institutions; expansion of interaction of higher educational institutions with institutions of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine regarding the development of scientific research in the field of higher education; re-equipment of educational, scientific-methodical and material-technical base of higher educational institutions.

In open higher education institutions learning is arranged virtually, via the Internet. There is only one institution of this type in Ukraine, Open International University of Human Development `Ukraine'. In terms of our investigation we consider it important to study its structure in detail.

The regulatory document of the University's activity is `Regulations of the Arrangement of the Educational Process at the Open International University of Human Development `Ukraine'' (2015) [2]. According to the Regulation, the main directions of the University's activities are: training of specialists of various educational and qualification levels; training and certification of scientific and pedagogical staff; research; advanced training of staff; cultural and educational, publishing work; arrangement of university admission campaign and course study.

It should be noticed that the aim of this University is to provide education to people with limited physical capabilities, therefore the main directions of the University's research are: development of effective concepts of the rehabilitation of the disabled; study of the international experience of rehabilitation of this category of people; creation of training programs for people with disabilities; development of projects of special enterprises capable to provide the employment of this group kind.

The main tasks of the University include: implementation of educational, scientific, technical, creative, and recreation activities; training of scientific and pedagogical staff followed by their attestation; studying the demand for certain specialties on the labor market and promoting the employment of graduates; ensuring cultural and spiritual development of the learner.

The learning process is organized within all branches of University including its regional institutes, colleges, centers, etc.

The educational process is carried out in the following forms: practical classes, individual work, training, assessment procedures. The main types of classes are: lectures, laboratory work, practical classes, seminars, consultations, which can be individual or group, depending on the physical or social characteristics of the students.

Participants of the educational process are: students, listeners, scientific, pedagogical, healthcare staff and coaches.

The University is specialized in a bachelor's, specialist or master's degree programs in the following specialties: human health, documentary Science and information technologies, design, philology (Ukrainian language and literature), philology (translation), psychology, international relations, publishing and editing, journalism, law, marketing, finance and credit, biology, ecology, environmental protection and safety of nature use, computer engineering, electronic technologies and systems, food technology and engineering, roadway transport, social work, tourism, hotel and restaurant business.

Distance learning process is organized according to the `Regulation of the organization of the educational process at the University `Ukraine''. Its implementation takes place on the Moodle platform providing more than 1,500 distance courses each of which consists of methodological recommendations, theoretical and practical material, references, and assessment tasks (tests, examinations). Each course is based on a curriculum that forms a modular system. The process of distance learning consists of 3 stages:

- introductory session (face-to-face/distance);

- individual work (remotely);

- final session (face-to-face).

The examination of students' skills and knowledge is ensured by assessment procedure (entrance, current and final exams or tests). Therefore, using the principles of distance learning University fulfills one of the main tasks of modern education - providing knowledge to all who wish ensuring the flexibility and accessibility of the learning process.

Within the framework of our research, we consider it appropriate to provide the investigation of the process of distance learning of a hybrid higher education institution which combines the formal and online forms of learning. This is Sumy National Agrarian University (SNAU).

Distance learning Center which is based in the University provides opportunities to study within the framework of Open Education using innovative ICT and open educational resources. The aim of the Center is to provide students with the opportunity to obtain high-quality knowledge, obtain necessary skills and practice in the chosen specialty using information and communication technologies of distance learning [3]. The main tasks of the Center are: expansion of access opportunities to high-quality education within distance learning; individualization of the learning process according to the needs and characteristics of students; increasing the effectiveness of education through the use of modern information and communication technologies; ensuring high-quality examination of distance education.

The document that regulates the work of the SNAU distance Center is the `Regulations of distance learning at Sumy National Agrarian University' which outlines the issue of providing distance learning, organizing the educational process, and ensuring high quality of distance learning courses.

The distance learning Center acts within the regulatory frameworks.

Decisions concerning the arrangement of the Center's work are made by the Academic Council and approved by the University rector. Documents of the learning process planning (curriculums, educational and methodical plans, class schedules) forming of disciplines, types of educational classes and examination measures are approved by the vice-rector of scientific, pedagogical and educational work.

Scientific and methodological support of a certain type of education (basic, postgraduate, retraining, advanced training) includes: theoretical and practical recommendations of the development and use of ICT of distance learning; criteria, means and systems of quality examination of education; didactic and methodical content of educational programs of distance courses.

System and technical support is represented by: hardware (network equipment, servers, PCs, equipment of video conferencing), telecommunications, software (operating systems, database servers, web server), web resources of the educational program (methodical recommendations, educational process planning documents, electronic libraries, video and audio recordings of lectures, seminars, multimedia lecture materials, practical tasks, virtual laboratory tasks with recommendations, collections of tests for self-monitoring, tests with automated or tutor checking of results).

Participants of the educational process.

They include students, scientific, pedagogical, administrative, managerial, technical and support staff. After graduation students are awarded a certificate or diploma.

The responsibilities of scientific and pedagogical workers include: arrangement of educational process planning documents; formation and timely updating of the didactic and methodical content of the web resources of the educational program; providing individualization of the educational process, examination measures, teaching (lectures, seminars, consultations) in synchronous/asynchronous modes; produce analytical reports of the results of students' implementation of educational programs. See the table 1.

Table 1

Arrangement of the educational process within the distance learning at Sumy National Agrarian University

The educational process is carried out within distance courses in the following disciplines: information technologies, economic, technical, social and fundamental sciences, which are developed by the relevant tutors. Courses are divided into sections with test tasks.

4. Ensuring of high quality of distance learning.

Vice-Rector of scientific, pedagogical and education work is the responsible person of the quality of distance education at SNAU.

The highest organization that examines the quality of distance learning is the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.

Further we want to present other examples of successful implementation of distance learning Projects.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) are the innovative open education technology. The courses of certain disciplines consist of lectures provided by university teachers. A learner can obtain the knowledge of a certain subject without entrance exams. After finishing of the course a learner is awarded a certificate.

Thus, in 2013 the `On-line University' project was founded. The first MOOCs were based in Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University. Similar free courses were launched in the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, the Ukrainian Catholic University and the Lviv IT School. These courses are available via the Internet and consist of interactive tests and video lectures of University teachers using the method of an interactive forum. Anyone can study at these courses: students of specialized and non-specialized faculties, applicants, professional staff, etc.

Since 2014, the social project “Educational Era” (“EdEra”) had been launched within the framework of interactive Online Education, which presents online courses and a wide range of educational content using IT [4]. At the end of a certain course, a learner takes an exam and receives a certificate. The aim of the project is to make education in the country accessible and of high quality, similar to the best International education initiatives.

Since 2014, the `Prometheus' project based on a platform of Ukrainian Massive Online Courses was founded. This is a public project of Massive Open Online Courses (IMOC) [7]. The participants of the project are the teachers of universities of Ukraine who provide courses of certain disciplines. After finishing of these courses a learner receives a certificate. The advantage of this platform is to provide free opportunity of relevant universities, organizations and leading companies to publish and distribute courses on this platform. `Prometheus' provides learners with open, free online access to various university courses.

On the initiative of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine in early 2017 two projects of free online Ukrainian language and literature (later) courses were launched. The projects were developed on the initiative of the public Union “Osvitoria” in the partnership with the educational online project EdEra [7]. The online Ukrainian language course was developed using mnemonic techniques and rules in the form of useful tips (life hacks). It helps to master the basic theoretical knowledge of Ukrainian literature, to develop the skills of successful speech communication, and to prepare for the final examination of this subject. Mastering the materials takes 4 hours a week. The five-week course consists of 16 topics, tests and supporting materials such as interactive synopsis on the EdEra Books platform.

Conclusions

So, the structural-logical analysis of the leading aspects of E-Learning in higher education institutions of Ukraine gives grounds for certain conclusions. We consider that there is a tendency of Ukrainian higher education institutions to develop initiatives towards the innovative activities of distance learning.

The current tendency of innovative transformations of Ukraine into E-Learning is the organizing of a national information and communication infrastructure through a series of measures: the creation of government institutions and branches for the formation and implementation of E-Learning principles, ICT support of higher education, etc.

The management of E-Learning in Ukraine is provided by the Ministry of Education and Science on the national level and by higher educational establishments on the institutional one.

The analysis of organizational and educational foundations of E-Learning in Ukrainian universities shows that the most important features of the system are the following: use of technological equipment taking into account the specifics of a particular subject and specialty; formation and implementation of student-oriented learning methods; development of criteria and technologies for ensuring high quality of online learning; support of lifelong professional development of teachers working within E-learning programs.

Bibliography

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Про освіту : Закон України від 05.09.2017 № 2145-19. URL: http://zakon2.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2145-19

References:

Kremen V H. (2016). Natsionalna dopovid pro stan i perspektyvy rozvytku osvity v Ukraini [National report on the state and prospects of education development in Ukraine]. Kyiv. 448 s [in Ukrainian]

Normatyvni dokumenty Vidkrytoho mizhnarodnoho universytetu rozvytku liudyny “Ukraina” [Normative documents of the Open International University of Human Development “Ukraine”]. URL: http://www.vmurol.com.ua/index. php?idd= fd1b 67395eb6e 361b87be 9267532 [in Ukrainian]

Polozhennia pro dystantsiine navchannia u Sumskomu natsionalnomu ahrarnomu universyteti [Regulations on distance learning at the Sumy National Agrarian University]. URL: http://cdn.sau.sumy.ua/cdn/regulatory/documents/polozhennja_dn_snau.pdf. [in Ukrainian]

Pro Natsionalnu stratehiiu rozvytku osvity v Ukraini na period do 2021 r. : Zakon Ukrainy vid 25.06.2013 № 344/2013 [On the National Education Development Strategy in Ukraine for the period until 2021. Law of Ukraine dated 06.25.2013 No. 344/2013]. URL: http://zakon3.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/344/2013 [in Ukrainian]

Proekt “Educational Era» [“Educational Era“ project]. URL: https://www. ed-era.com/about/ [in Ukrainian]

Proekt “On-lain kurs z ukrainskoi movy” [Project “On-line course on the Ukrainian language”]. URL: http://mon.gov.ua/ usi-novivni/povidomlennya/2017/02/08/rozpochinaetsya-onlajn-kurs-z-ukrayinskoyi-movi/ [in Ukrainian]

Proekt “Prometheus” [“Prometheus” project]. URL: https://Prometheus.org.ua/ [in Ukrainian]

Pro osvitu : Zakon Ukrainy vid 05.09.2017 № 2145-19 [About education. Law of Ukraine dated September 5, 2017 No. 2145-19.]. URL: http://zakon2.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2145-19 [in Ukrainian]

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