Distance learning in the modern system of higher education

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Distance learning in the modern system of higher education

Havrylenko K.M.

Introduction. Modern higher education system in addition to full-time and correspondence types of education has recently developed a new form of education - distance learning. It has been conceived as a complex of educational technologies provided for a wide range of people through the creation of specialized computer and educational data by educational institutions [13].

The demand for the widespread introduction and development of distance learning is explained by the fact that traditional forms of education do not fully cope with the rapid information development and the increasing social need in modern educational technologies. The implementation of a distance education system based on computer, video, multimedia, and communication technologies permit to solve this problem effectively.

Nowadays distance education as a new type of learning technologies has arisen upon the request of a new generation of learners to support their needs. Therefore, distance learning involves the selection of educational methods not for the sake of obtaining an educational degree as a result of studying, but as a means of satisfying individual learners' needs.

Analysis of recent researches and publications. The place of distance education in modern education was highlighted in many publications. The problem of distance learning development in modern universities was described in the works of T. Anderson, V Andrushchenko, R. Harrison, T. Desiatov, I. Ziaziun, M. Moore, D. Taylor, J. Hess, and others.

The issue of distance education implementation within the educational and virtual learning environment was studied by such Ukrainian and foreign scientists as O. Andreev, V. Lugovoi, S. Sysoeva, J. McQuaid and others. The problems of successful realization of distance education were also studied by B. Gershunsky, Y. Mashbits, I. Podlasy, didactic principles of distance learning communication were described by O. Rybalko, O. Sobaeva, and others.

Previously unsettled problem constituent. However, the analysis of scientific and pedagogical publications has demonstrated that modern tendencies of distance learning development in higher education institutions were not specifically considered by modern researches. Many researchers state that the issue of the place of distance learning in modern higher education is too broad and often controversial for timely scientific reports. Therefore, new publications highlighting the stated problem are important as a source of new scientific data for recording and further analysis.

Objectives. The introduction of computer communication technologies into the education system is probably the most significant change that has occurred in the global educational system in recent years. However, real changes provide only potential opportunities for the development of new educational technologies in higher institutions. The methods of traditional knowledge acquisition do not seriously suit either students or teachers. To determine the place of distance learning in the system of modern higher educational institutions, in this paper we try to identify the main aspects of distance learning technologies of goal setting for acquiring professional knowledge and competencies.

Results. European development of distance learning promoted by the Bologna Process and the Erasmus project allowed students from different countries to participate in online seminars and listen to any university course via the Internet, which made it possible for them to obtain education at several universities at the same time. New technologies have also promoted new possibilities for the Ukrainian students, as the distance learning facilities help to implement mobility and multimedia to the learning process. For many universities, distance learning has become a reality. Having entered the Bologna process, Ukraine got on a path of global reform of its higher education system, which should raise the status of national higher education diplomas in the European labor market.

Distance education can be defined as learning type, characterized by the following main points:

Availability of two-side mutual agreement between the teacher and learner;

Distance separation of the teacher and learner as well as the learners and educational institutions;

Mutual two-directional interaction of the learners and teachers;

Material selections designed specifically for distance learning.

For identifying the main goals of the distance education system, first of all, we should consider the main subjects of the educational process; outline its levels and boundaries, which make it possible to implement the distance education system in the professional training of modern higher educational institutions.

The range of various educational technologies plays a vital role in the development of practical mechanisms in educational functions provision. Educational institutions organize and support the educational process employing new methods and techniques, which have a decisive impact on the structure of the offered learning courses, and the segmentation of distance education.

The demand for different distance educational products by individual students is growing. The government, different enterprises, and organizations are also concerned with the quality of professional training provided through distance learning technologies. It should be noted that they have certain requirements for the content and quality of the educational process as a final user of educational services is a certain individual who should be able to carry the educational, professional and cultural potential for the benefits of the community and satisfying their own needs.

The fundamental need for the development of the range of educational technologies took place on demand of the educational system to comply with the socio-economic and industrial changes in the society. The ground for educational development is a socially organized mechanism that ensures a constant connection between producers and consumers of economically efficient benefits in the field of education [7; 16]. Thus, the educational technologies provide the process of knowledge and skills transferring for professional training, designed to enhance human potential and individual abilities for social self-realization, which makes it possible to define educational process as a system of economic relations between various individuals in order to provide appropriate educational outcomes, focused on developing personal abilities for producing economic growth.

The scientists distinguish educational technologies as something immaterial and intangible, which effectiveness is delayed in time and which quality is tested only in the process of consumption of the finished product when the graduates start working [12]. Educational technologies are dependent on people who implement them (the teaching staff of a professional institution) and its end-users; therefore, the main competitive advantage of any professional education institution is the level of the teaching staff qualification, which determines the quality of the educational process provided.

The result of education errors might be fatal for a final user; therefore, to ensure the quality of the educational process, the university must guarantee the obtaining of knowledge and skills that can satisfy the students' needs as well as the socio-economical demands. The delivery of an educational product is influenced by the unified education system of a higher institution and is provided to develop an individual's abilities, qualities, and motivation. Due to the significant time division between the educational process acquisition and obtaining the final results (professional skills and competencies), a direct assessment of the quality and sustainability of education is complicated.

Among the main goal-setting agents of the modern educational process in the first place, we should denote a direct user of educational technologies, whose interests and personal, professional, social aspirations, needs, and motivation are the guideline in the educational planning development. The next interested agent of educational technologies is the organization where the future professionals will work. It orders a professional training of an employee according to its special needs and functions, as well as the sets requirements to the specialists' level of competences. The third agent is the community with a certain system of guidelines and values corresponding to the cultural and historical development of the society.

The state that regulates the general level of education also puts forward special requirements in the form of an educational standard and carries out examinations as verification of specialist training compliance to a set educational level. An educational institution is one more agent of the modern educational process that fulfills the demand on the different education orders and develops educational plans based on its mission and educational goals.

The flexibility and adaptability of distance education and electronic educational programs permit to take these preconditions into account and change the content of professional training under the actual demands of individuals, organizations, community, and government.

Developing distance learning techniques it is necessary to consider different changes and new directions in modern education, which determine the trajectory of individual goals depending on an individual's existing level of skills and competences, personal and professional needs and the desired level of competences for short and longterm self-development. This approach permits to determine the main goals of the distance education system. In the framework of the intended trajectory of the individual's development, distance learning is carried out in three interrelated areas that determine learner's professional competences: educational, social, and professional. In other words, the goal-setting process is not limited only by educational prospects. A certain directional educational vector is being designed supporting the correlation between professional skills development and academic quasi-professional growth and professional education in general through the competences increase in solving professional problems.

The flexibility of the modern model of distance education exists since it could be defined as a four-stage model for professional competences development. They are the stage of knowledge or ontological, behavioral stage, stage of abilities, and personal or semantic stage.

Such a model of distance education is generated by a set of typical tasks and goals intended to be solved by professionals at a specific level of competence, and each typical task involves its fulfillment at the given stage of an individual's professional readiness. A stage selecting depends on the individual's learning progress: from knowledge through understanding to creative activity and next to the stage of personal professional development, when the learner's personal qualities and attitude to the chosen profession have been shaped.

A leading principle of the distance education system is the method of creative project design, which involves learners participating in the process of goal determination due to the interactive nature of online training materials and assignments. Every student is an individual, with his/her needs and motivation and should be involved in the educational plan development as an independent subject of the educational process. The educational planning and training materials for distance learning provide a special space for the individuals to complete the training program, fill it up with specific personal meanings and relevant goals, as well as personal experience and goals, social and professional needs.

The educational planning is designed to provide an individual with an opportunity to apply their potential ensured by the training materials and supported by consulting assistance for individual needs and problems. At the same time, a learner receiving professional knowledge and skills is considered as a self-sufficient individual but is given a possibility to model own competences development [2].

Therefore, the distance education system for goal-setting acts as an innovative segment of education, characterized by the following features.

Both the developers' and the learners' goals are presented in the training materials. These goals are not equal, but adequate to each other;

The goals reflect the different educational, social and professional level of each learner;

The process of setting goals depends on the future professional activities of a specialist and as a result of an assessment of his/her initial and achieved levels of competence;

The goals are not imposed on learners and are not rigid, but are just suggested. In the distance education system, the goals represent a “horizon of possibilities” for an individual who has assessed his/her limitations can self-determine a personal development path;

The training materials contain direct and indirect goals - through any set tasks, situations, and problems. One of the main characteristic features of the distance education system is the emergence of new tasks during the educational program implementation through the principle of dynamic project design due to the existence of two goal-setting subjects: a learner competences development and a teacher as a developer of these competencies.

It should be noted that one of the shortcomings of the Ukrainian distance educational is a clear shortage of education specialists able to perform in an online teaching format. Modern distance education technologies have reached a level where their implementation requires highly qualified specialists for the development of techniques, motivation systems, and interactive models processing. At the designing of an educational course in distance learning, it is necessary to take into consideration the specific features of the distance education model, which attribute to the innovative forms of knowledge acquisition. One of the most distinguishing features of this model is the transparency of the boundaries between the educational, professional and social environments [5].

Nowadays innovative educational technologies and distance learning supplement and even gradually supersede such forms of education as correspondence and evening classes. These technologies greatly influence the development of modern professional training in universities, enriching it with new substantial and organizational components. The distance learning market is developing rapidly and is one of the most promising areas for the development of education in modern conditions.

Conclusions. Thus, the concept of competence inherent professional training should be conveyed to the educational process as the fundamental goal, which influences all educational goals setting respectively in developing the learner's knowledge, skills, and abilities. The correct and relevant goal setting in the distance education system makes it possible to build a multidimensional scale of values aimed at the development of professional competences in universities.

Wherein, the main requirements for the formulation of distance education goals and objectives are: instrumental, diagnostic, realistic, motivating and contextual. Learning goals should correspond to the context of the social and professional background of the future specialist and correlate with the main goal of competences development.

The cost of distance learning is cheaper than other forms of education, the learning time is less, and the speed of educational material acquisition is higher. As well as we should take into consideration a great number of specialists with a need of changing or improving their professional qualification for the reasons of the enterprises' shutdown or reprofiling, migration, and other when the distance learning is gaining more and more popularity.

However, the introduction of distance education technologies in modern universities is not simple as it requires the introduction and development of new teaching methods and specially designed materials for individual and independent studying in a holistic learning environment.

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