International Journal of Educational and Scientific Research No.4 (12), 2021
УДК 378.091.33:004
Parkhatova Rano Mukhtarovna
Almaty University of Power Engineering and Telecommunications
named after Gumarbek Daukeev,
Senior lecturer, Department for Language Studies
Пархатова Рано Мухтаровна
Aлматинский университет энергетики и связи
имени Гумарбека Даукеева,
Старший преподаватель кафедры языковых знаний
Imramzieva Sahinat Dzhamaldinovna
Almaty University of Power Engineering and Telecommunications
named after Gumarbek Daukeev,
Senior lecturer, Department for Language Studies
Имрамзиева Сахинат Джамалдиновна
Aлматинский университет энергетики и связи
имени Гумарбека Даукеева,
Старший преподаватель кафедры языковых знаний
E-mail: jeunne15@mail.ru
PECULIARITIES OF DISTANCE LEARNING TODAY
Annotation. The modern education system, which is being implemented in our country today, implies
an increase in the amount of time for independent learning. In the educational process, the role of information
educational technologies is increasing, and the leading positions are given to electronic textbooks. The main
conditions for a smooth and effective transition to an online education system are obvious: maximum coverage
of the territory with high-speed broadband Internet, provision of universities with computer equipment and the
availability of educational Internet platforms.
Key words: distance learning, implementation of distance learning, effectiveness of distance learning,
experiment, video conference, student, instructor, university lecturers, transition to distance learning.
In the current situation, associated with a high risk of coronavirus infection, the only possible and adequate
response of universities and colleges to the external challenge was a temporary full transition to distance learning.
And in these conditions, all possible resources of universities, partner universities, external content providers and
services were used to implement the educational process via the Internet.
Important requirements for the system were its reliability, the bandwidth of Internet channels, the ease of
creating and posting content, and the availability of services and platforms for university lecturers and students.
Following the methodological recommendations of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, universities
have developed scenarios for the implementation of distance learning and requirements for the formats of the
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International Journal of Educational and Scientific Research No.4 (12), 2021
educational process that are acceptable for their level of IT infrastructure development, considering the available
external resources. That is why each university has its own set of tools and scenarios for organizing training in an
online environment. The most popular among universities were LMS platforms for posting content and testing
students ‘ knowledge, webinar services for online lectures and consultations, social networks and messengers for
communication between students and university lecturers, and email newsletters for content delivery.
However, even these provided opportunities could not ensure the full development of online courses by students
since free access to the course content did not imply support for students from the university holders of online
courses, and teachers from consumer universities were not immersed in the course content, were not familiar with
the methodology of online learning and studied courses simultaneously with their students.
At the same time, motivated students coped with the task quite well, but, unfortunately, there are not very many
of them.
Teachers did not have enough skills to work in the digital environment, time to learn new tools and rebuild the
educational process, and support from the technical services of the university, which play an important role in the
introduction of new technologies.
Training of teachers in such a short time was not possible and was reduced to instructive internal meetings, short
webinars from the expert community, recommendations, and instructions for working with various services and
platforms posted on the websites of organizations. The issues of pedagogical design and development of course
projects were not even put on the agenda of the transition to distance learning. And this is a consequence of
force majeure, which forced universities to mobilize all available resources and make a breakthrough in the mass
emergency introduction of distance education technologies, but not in the systematic use of online learning tools,
which requires much longer time Electronic content created to solve immediate problems should be distinguished
from full-fledged online courses, which involve the creation of a flexible interactive student-centered online
environment for the controlled development of knowledge and skills by students. And, as a result, there is no
reason to judge the effectiveness of online learning by the results that will be obtained in this “global” experiment
of an emergency transition to distance learning. Approaches to assessing the effectiveness of distance learning in
extreme conditions are the following ones. When evaluating the effectiveness of a new educational technology or
learning model, it is tempting to compare the learning outcomes obtained by students using this technology with
the learning outcomes in the traditional full-time learning model. However, such a comparative analysis, as a rule,
does not provide reasonable statistically significant conclusions due to the fact that it requires: strict experimental
design; identical in content and different in format content; the same control and measurement materials and
conditions for the final certification; a sufficiently large sample, randomly generated for each training model
(technology); exclusion of the influence of external factors on the results of the experiment that reduce the validity
of the experiment.
In addition, this analysis defines performance as student performance and does not consider other success factors.
Success in this case is not an absolute category and can be measured based on the interests of different participants
in the learning process.
For teachers, these are really the results of students ‘learning, and for students, in addition to academic
performance, motivation and involvement in the learning process play an important role, which directly affect
students’ achievements.
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For the university administration, such indicators as the percentage of students who completed the course, reducing
the workload of teachers and increasing their productivity, market coverage and the amount of extra-budgetary
funds attracted come to the fore.
Evaluation of the effectiveness of online learning or the use of distance learning technologies can be carried out
through the prism of these targets, but such an assessment is appropriate in the context of a systematic transition
to new models of the educational process.
In the extreme conditions of a sharp reformatting of the educational process, with limited internal and external
resources, completely different evaluation criteria come to the fore. They can be divided into 4 areas: assessment of
the context (prerequisites) of changes, assessment of the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of changes, assessment
of the processes of implementation of changes and results (products), direct and secondary.
In this regard, to assess the current forced transition to distance learning, universities will have to answer the
following questions:
What factors (social, institutional, administrative) determined the readiness of universities for the transition, the
attitude of participants to the changes and influenced the effectiveness of these changes?
Are there sufficient internal and external resources to make such a transition? Is the level of development of
the IT infrastructure sufficient for technical support of changes? Do the staff and teachers have the necessary
competencies to carry out their tasks?
What stages of the transition process caused the most difficulty for the participants? What organizational
mechanisms failed?
What are the results of the transition to distance learning for students, teachers, and support staff? What is the
reason for the failure to achieve goals or negative feedback from participants? What issues need to be addressed
to improve results?
Such an assessment is more focused on the analysis of prerequisites, needs, and processes than on the evaluation
of results. And efficiency in this case is defined as the ratio of results and resources spent, considering the urgency
of the tasks set.
In the end, it is much more important to draw conclusions from this “global experiment” and organize systematic
work on errors to avoid these errors in the future.
In the process of distance learning, modern technologies are used, which also allows you to master skills that will
be useful in the future in work and everyday life.
One of the most important amenities is the ability to adjust and make the training schedule, the schedule of
classes, as well as the list of subjects studied.
It is necessary to note one more advantage-it is training in the most comfortable and familiar environment, which
contributes to productive learning.
But, of course, along with the advantages of distance learning, there are also disadvantages.
It is considered one of the negative aspects of distance learning is the lack of personal communication with
the university lecturer, as well as communication with other students. On the other hand, currently it is solved
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quite simply – email, phone, video conference programs. Sometimes you do not have to be around to be able to
communicate in person.
The next factor, as a rule, is indicated by the need for the student to have a strong motivation to learn productively
without the supervision of a teacher. And it is impossible to argue with this. But, at the same time, distance
learning is often a deliberate and balanced step, which is taken by an adult who pays for it with their own money.
And this is already 80% of the necessary motivation. In the case when a company that improves the skills of its
specialist pays for distance learning, it already performs the role of “supervisor”.
And of course, the technical aspect – students may not always have the necessary technical equipment: a computer
or Internet access.
And, nevertheless, distance learning has great prospects in development because it justifies itself and is convenient.
This training is in great demand among residents of different regions of the country. In a situation where it is
difficult to get to the city of training or life is in constant time pressure, the opportunity to study remotely helps.
It is also convenient during the period of sick leave, when leaving the house is difficult. This form of training is
innovative, but even now distance learning is gaining its followers.
A certified specialist is a highly paid and in-demand job. Distance learning courses provide all the necessary basis
for mastering this profession and open a lot of new details that will be important for those who are already familiar
with the profession.
The distance learning system is built considering all the subtleties and nuances to ensure maximum efficiency and
benefit of training and at the same time, to ensure the convenience of its use.
List of literature:
1. Ibragimov. I. M. Information technologies and means of distance learning: a textbook for students. Moscow:
Akademiya,2005. -336 p .
2. Internet in humanitarian education: Textbook for universities / Ed. by E. S. Polat. - M.: Vlados, 2001. -272 p.
3. V. Kanavo. “Advantages and disadvantages of distance learning via the Internet” (http://www.curator.ru/doplus.
html)
4. V. Kanavo. “Methodological recommendations for creating a distance learning course via the Internet” (http://
www.curator.ru/method.html)
5. Kireeva, E. D. Analysis of the prospective development of existing forms of educational Internet projects / /
Innovations in education. -2002. - No. 4. - pp. 38-40. 6.
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