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DOI: https://doi.org/10.46502/issn.1856-7576/2023.17.01.15
Cómo citar:
Tsilmak, O., Revenko, N., Kryvun, N., Fedorenko, O., & Tsisaruk, I. (2023). Prospects for the development of distance education in
Ukraine: methodological aspect. Revista Eduweb, 17(1), 157-166. https://doi.org/10.46502/issn.1856-7576/2023.17.01.15
Prospects for the development of distance education in
Ukraine: methodological aspect
Perspectivas para el desarrollo de la educación a distancia en ucrania: aspecto
metodológico
Olena Tsilmak
tsilmak@gmail.com
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7348-4876
National university «Odessa law academy», Ukraine.
Natalia Revenko
nmirey@gmail.com
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1788-3914
V.О. Sukhomlynskyi National University of Mykolaiv, Ukraine.
Natalia Kryvun
natashabk@gmail.com
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8112-7016
Berdyansk State Pedagogical University, Ukraine.
Olena Fedorenko
fei0971@gmail.com
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4948-9524
Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs, Ukraine.
Iryna Tsisaruk
tsisaruk@gmail.com
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7285-9055
Kremenets Taras Shevchenko Regional Academy of Humanities and Pedagogy, Ukraine.
Recibido: 03/01/23
Aceptado: 19/02/23
Abstract
The article identifies and characterizes the organizational and pedagogical preconditions, patterns,
features of the development of distance education in Ukraine, analyzes its role in solving the problem of
modernization of vocational education in Ukraine. The main trends in the development of distance
education and new learning technologies in Ukraine, based on modern information and
telecommunication means of manipulating educational information, have been studied in order to find
out the prospects for its further development. The principles of modeling the process of distance
learning are disclosed, which allow creating a special learning environment in any geographical
location and due to the didactic tasks of higher education. The concept of variable modeling of distance
training systems for a future specialist by creating a special learning environment in any geographical
location has been developed and theoretically substantiated. The organizational and pedagogical
conditions for the effective implementation of distance learning models in the current system of training
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specialists in higher education are shown.
Keywords: higher education, education system, distance learning, distance education.
Resumen
El artículo identifica y caracteriza las condiciones previas organizativas y pedagógicas, los patrones
y las características del desarrollo de la educación a distancia en Ucrania, analiza su papel en la
solución del problema de la modernización de la educación vocacional en Ucrania. Se han estudiado
las principales tendencias en el desarrollo de la educación a distancia y las nuevas tecnologías de
aprendizaje en Ucrania, basadas en medios modernos de información y telecomunicaciones para
manipular la información educativa, con el fin de conocer las perspectivas de su desarrollo futuro.
Se dan a conocer los principios de modelado del proceso de educación a distancia, que permiten
crear un ambiente de aprendizaje especial en cualquier ubicación geográfica y debido a las tareas
didácticas de la educación superior.
Se ha desarrollado y fundamentado teóricamente el concepto de modelado variable de los sistemas
de formación a distancia para un futuro especialista mediante la creación de un entorno de
aprendizaje especial en cualquier ubicación geográfica.
Se muestran las condiciones organizativas y pedagógicas para la implementación efectiva de
modelos de educación a distancia en el actual sistema de formación de especialistas en educación
superior.
Palabras clave: educación superior, sistema educativo, aprendizaje a distancia, educación a
distancia.
1. Introduction
In the 21st century, society is faced with such problems as the rapid change of information flows,
eyuenenomic instability. Many professions become morally obsolete in the labor market, and
therefore, in the process of rotation, workers in these areas are forced to change the scope,
content and quality of their knowledge and skills in the process of rotation or acquire them from
scratch, adapting to a new professional field. New professions appear that require a quick
response from the education sector with to fill the expanding nomenclature vacuum.
Significant changes have taken place in the domestic education system due to the development
of market relations and changes in the socio-economic situation in the country. The university has
become one of the institutions of the market economy. Transformations in the economy,
significant changes in working conditions, the need to train highly qualified specialists for new or
modernized areas of activity have a direct impact on its institutional structures and curricula.
The change in priorities in society and the economy has led to a drop in demand for graduates
from previously prestigious technical universities and a sharp increase in competition for
economic, law, environmental and humanitarian faculties. Introducing new specialties, modern
universities turned out to be financially and methodologically unprepared to provide the
educational process with adequate educational infrastructures, specialized libraries and
educational technologies, including distance education technologies.
The demand for distance education in Ukraine today is estimated as commensurate with the
needs of full-time education, i.e. is approximately 0.5 million students per year. Large consumers
of the distance education system are the population in European countries and individuals (Gao,
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2021). The demand for a distance learning system is also due to the need to implement the
principle of openness in education, to expand the rights of an individual to receive that education
and in that educational institution that seems more attractive to the future specialist.
Currently, distance education is considered as a form of education that makes it possible to
choose educational resources and is a promising way to get education in areas remote from
educational centers.
Today, the need for specialists who can work with a dynamic information environment exceeds
the ability of the educational system to train them (Palvia et al., 2018). This led to the fact that
education began to be considered as the most important factor in the economic growth and social
development of countries, solving a number of global problems related to the survival of mankind.
There is a contradiction between the new needs of society for highly qualified specialists and the
inability of the modern professional school to satisfy them; between the speed of economic and
social transformations in society and the inertia of the educational system, which fails to timely
and adequately adapt to these transformations (Hillier,2018). The dynamic genesis of distance
education, which allowed it to transform in the historically shortest possible time from a simple
use of technical means in the educational process to a specific didactic approach, and then a
specific system for organizing this process, has been suspended in recent years.
The main attention began to be paid to the improvement of the means of technical support
themselves, and not to the study of the didactic problems of distance education (Atieku-Boateng,
2021), (Shoufan, 2019).
Thus, the forms, methods and principles of distance learning, didactic conditions for the
effectiveness of its organization, including those related to the search for optimal combinations of
distance and contact learning, have not received proper development.
This, in turn, predetermined the range of particular contradictions between:
− the rapid advancement of the level of technical support for distance education and the
imperfection of its didactic base;
− the novelty of the forms of organization of distance education and the lag in the methodological
support of the process of distance learning;
− the inefficiency of transferring traditional didactics methods that are not adapted to the
features of distance education and the need to use them due to the undeveloped specific
didactics of distance learning;
− a variety of didactic tasks that need to be solved in the process of distance learning, and the
lack of evidence-based variant models of its organization;
− the parallel existence of two independent didactics of contact and distance learning without
conducting a study of the possibilities of their integration for the training of specialists (Shehab
& Khalifa, 2021).
2. Literature review
Despite the obvious advantages of online learning in higher education institutions, the introduction
of the educational process in electronic format involves solving a number of issues for both
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students and for academic staff of educational institutions (Riera Guasp, Ardid, Vidaurre &
Dueñas, 2018), (Rajab, 2018).
For academic staff, the real challenge of online learning was the significant increase in the time
required to provide a quality learning process. In particular, the time for preparing lecture classes,
checking homework, and maintaining electronic and hardcopy records of attendance and success
of education applicants has doubled (Ali, Khalil & El-Sharkawy, 2020).The major reasons for the
suspension ofthe educational process during warfare are considered to be the lack of a clear plan
of action for the use of online learning for all participants in the educational process and the lack
of adequate facilities of institutions of higher education that could ensure the proper quality of
online education (O'Doherty, Dromey, Lougheed, Hannigan, Last & McGrath, 2018),
(Nikadambaeva, 2020), (Morin, 2020). Considering the challenges of online learning organization,
scientists pay attention to the issues of qualified support of the student by the educator or other
authorized persons during online learning. Such qualified support should begin at the stage of
searching for proposals of distance learning programs and accompany the student during the
entire learning process (Langegard, Kiani, Nielsen & Svensson, 2021). However, a review of the
literature on the development of online education in times of war has shown that the issue of
developing special strategies for working with higher education applicants during military conflicts
remains unresolved. This is due to the lack of specialized software and information developments
for working with students that take into account the specifics of receiving education specifically
during military conflict (during its exacerbation especially) in the territory where the educational
institution or students studying at such institutions are located.
3. Aims
The identified contradictions prove the existence of the research problem: what are the conceptual
foundations for the variable modeling of the distance learning process in the specific conditions
of distance education of future specialists in the “person-to-person” sphere? The solution to the
problem is due to the need to determine the appropriate limits of applicability of this type of
education for solving certain pedagogical problems, constructing variable models that optimize its
combination with other learning methods. Today, the methodological foundations of distance
education are based entirely on the principles of informatization of education and the extensive
use of new telecommunication technologies. The didactic principles that ensure the intensification
of distance learning require their justification.
Insufficient theoretical and practical elaboration of the problem and its particular relevance and
scientific significance in modern conditions of the development of society determined the choice
of the topic of the article.
Object of the article: the process of remote training of future specialists in the sphere higher
education.
The purpose of the article is to develop and theoretically substantiate the concept of modeling
options for distance education, to create and experimentally test options for its organizational and
pedagogical models, to isolate the boundaries of its expedient application and conditions for
effectiveness.
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4. Materials and methods
Research methods. At different stages of the study, a set of complementary methods was used:
a) theoretical (analysis and synthesis of scientific literature on the topic of research;
generalization, extrapolation, modeling, design of systems and processes, study of directive,
regulatory and program and methodological documents in the field of education);
b) empirical (study, analysis of the current experience of the functioning of the system of
continuous education and distance learning, prolonged observations; questionnaires,
heuristic conversations, content analysis, rating, Internet search, pedagogical experiment,
retrospective analysis of personal pedagogical experience in modeling learning systems and
implementing distance learning;
c) statistical (quantitative and qualitative processing of experimental data, graphical
representation of the results).
5. Results
Consideration of the essence of distance education as a pedagogical category showed that
distance education is a complex of educational services provided to the general population with
the help of a specialized information educational environment based on the means of exchanging
educational information at a distance. This is one of the options for modernizing modern education
systems in the country.
This is a universal humanistic form of education based on the use of a wide range of information
and telecommunication technologies and technical means that create conditions for the student
to freely choose educational disciplines, dialogue exchange with the teacher, regardless of the
location of the student in space and time. The teacher, student and information sources can be
located in different geographic regions and communicate through special means of
communication that allow for educational interaction without their direct contact. The use of
computer technology and printed media, which is characteristic of this form, reduces the
necessary amount of direct communication with the teacher and changes the nature, content and
target orientation of educational interaction (Alqahtani & Rajkhan, 2020).
Distance learning as an information and educational remote access system based on modern
information technologies combines elements of classical university education and numerous
elements of a virtual educational environment. Modern means of communication make it possible
to overcome the shortcomings of traditional forms of education, while maintaining all their
advantages.
The basis of the distance educational process is the purposeful and controlled intensive
independent work of the student, who can study in a convenient place, according to an individual
schedule, having a set of special teaching aids with him.
The emergence of information and telecommunication training aids - personal computers with
training, control programs, models and simulators, facsimile, video and audio technologies,
systems. The introduction of computer technology made it possible to move to a different level of
information transfer, made it possible to create training aids with powerful interactive capabilities.
Computer systems can demonstrate the multivariance of a solution, examine, identify errors, give
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the necessary recommendations, open access to electronic libraries, and help find the information
you need in a matter of seconds (Ratheeswari, 2018).
6. Discussion
The research hypothesis is based on the fact that the results of the current system of training
future specialists using distance learning can be significantly higher if:
− models of distance education will be based on the theoretical and methodological foundations
of the long-term development of distance learning technologies based on modern information
and telecommunication means for transmitting and processing information and integrating
different types of systems for organizing the process of learning by students;
− training models will be variable, diverse and adequate to the target settings of their application;
− modeling of various options for the educational process will be based on the symbiosis of the
principles of contact and distance learning, allowing you to create special learning
environments in any geographical location, taking into account the specifics of the educational
contingent;
− organizational and pedagogical conditions for the introduction of distance learning models into
the current system of higher education have been identified and substantiated.
The prerequisites for expanding the scope of distance education are:
− processes of democratization and humanization of modern Ukrainian society;
− the release of a large number of jobs due to their obsolescence and the curtailment of many
industries;
− the growth of the country's need for new specialties, reflecting a new level of technological
progress;
− an increase in the desire for higher education of an increasing number of the population of the
country, including those previously deprived of the opportunity to receive it due to the
remoteness from educational institutions and the limited possibilities of the universities
themselves.
Factors that determine the nature and features of the development of distance education are:
− the emergence in the country of new systems of technical support for the educational process,
which allow organizing the training of specialists in any geographically remote point of the
country;
− expansion of the information educational and scientific-pedagogical field by attracting world
experience in the creation of special computer technologies; intensification of integrative
processes of development of foreign economic relations; entry of Ukraine into the world
economic and educational space;
− shifting the focus of global conceptual educational positions from "education for life" to
"education throughout life";
− change of priorities from the militaristic doctrine of a closed society to society from the
everyday type, interacting in a single world space;
− the emergence of a global paradigm setting for the continuity of education.
The chronology of the history of the formation of distance education in the country with the
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periodization of the main stages of its development is substantiated.
The principles of modeling distance education are defined, combining general didactic principles
with the principles of informatization:
the priority of the pedagogical approach when designing models of the educational process in the
system of distance learning;
flexibility, dynamism and variability of distance learning models;
compliance of the teaching technologies used by the teacher with the selected models and types
of distance education used by this teacher or educational institution;
non-antagonism of models used in distance learning to existing forms of education; modularity,
interactivity, cost-effectiveness and accessibility to various categories of the population in the
construction of distance learning models;
Variable organizational and pedagogical models of distance learning for specialists working in the
field of "human-to-human" have been developed:
− model of synchronized learning without feedback;
− model of synchronized learning with feedback;
− model of asynchronous learning with feedback;
− model of asynchronous learning with vertical and horizontal feedback;
− asynchronous learning model with vertical and horizontal feedback;
− a student-oriented model of distance learning, which allows students to work in modes from a
rigidly controlled one, which sets the student's performing activity within a strictly defined
framework of an information and training program, to research one, carried out in the
conditions of working on a single group project or individual research.
Theoretical significance of the study.
Theoretical and methodological foundations for modeling distance education as a set of basic
subsystems are substantiated, each of which consists of certain components and is built taking
into account the development of new innovative technologies and information and
telecommunication means of information transmission.
The main trends in the development of distance education have been identified, which make it
possible to create a theoretical basis for it, which ensures its further development:
− globalization (transition through distance education in the country to a single global
educational space);
− a combination of remote and interactive forms of interaction between the student and
students, ensuring the completeness and variety of interactive communications;
− integrativity of organizational and pedagogical models of distance learning with existing
didactic systems;
− the focus of education on the priorities of the individual and her well-being, as well as on the
science of industry and the economy of tomorrow;
− continuity of education throughout a person's life.
The organizational and pedagogical conditions for the introduction of distance learning models
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have been identified and justified, and the effectiveness of their application based on the use of
information technology and computer technology has been confirmed:
a) basing distance learning models on a combination of general didactic principles with specific
ones, their creative interpretation in the process of adapting to new tasks of training specialists
in a professional educational institution;
b) integration of different types of systems for organizing the process of mastering knowledge by
trainees;
c) effective use of information technologies and computer technology, overcoming the socio-
geographical factors of removal of the student from the teacher.
In the course of the study, the main principles for designing a distance education system were
determined: the principle of the priority of the pedagogical approach in designing the educational
process in the distance learning system; the principle of flexibility and dynamism, which
determines the ability of trainees in this system to work at a convenient time in a convenient place;
the principle of pedagogical expediency of applying new information technologies; the principle of
taking into account the starting level of education; the principle of compliance of the teaching
technologies used by the teacher with the selected models and types of distance education used
by this teacher or educational institution; the principle of freedom of choice of the content of
education by students; the principle of information security in the distance learning system; the
principle of non-antagonism of distance education to existing forms of education; principles of
modularity, interactivity, intensification, economic efficiency and accessibility to various categories
of the population.
The analysis of the literature on the problem under study and the accumulated experience of
variable modeling of target models of the organization of the distance educational process made
it possible to develop a formula for the concept of variable modeling of the distance learning
process. Briefly, it is formulated as follows: modeling of distance education in higher education as
a system of integrated learning technologies is implemented through the creation of special
methodological, didactic and organizational- technological learning environments, functioning on
the basis of a complex of variable pedagogical models for organizing a distance educational
process, built on the integration of systems of various types organizing the process of assimilation
of knowledge by trainees, the combination of general didactic and information and
telecommunication principles and the use of information technology and computer technology.
7. Conclusions
Thus, the creation of a distance learning system should be based on fundamental principles, on
the one hand, denoting a set of requirements inherent in any type of education, on the other hand,
defining the specifics of this type of education. The didactic foundations of distance learning
should be based on a combination of general didactic principles with specific ones, creatively
interpreting them in the process of adapting to new learning tasks.
Selected models of organizing a distance educational process based on the integration of different
types of systems for organizing the process of assimilation of knowledge by trainees (model of
synchronized learning without feedback; model of synchronized learning with feedback; model of
asynchronous learning with feedback; model of asynchronous learning with vertical and horizontal
feedback; diagnostic - asynchronous learning model with vertical and horizontal feedback;
student-centered model of distance learning) allow students to work in modes from a tightly
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controlled, setting the performing activity of the student within a strictly defined framework of the
information program to research, conducted in the conditions of working on a single group project
or individual research. They can also be used in the full-time and part-time system of organizing
the educational process. The difference will be the proportions of the ratios of the contact and
distance components of training in terms of content, volume of material studied and time, as well
as the schemes and nature of the interaction of participants in the educational process.
The implementation of the concept of creating a distance learning model in higher education
dictates the need to create a single educational space that unites teachers and students not only
with the noble goal of knowledge and education, but also mass familiarization with the technical
and cultural achievements of mankind. The possibilities of distance learning methods and means
of technological support of the educational process give education a democratic character,
flexibility and mobility, sufficient to take into account the various interests of the “learner”, while
maintaining high quality and exactingness.
The attempt made in this study to build the concept of variable modeling of distance education as
a system of integrated educational technologies, to lay the foundations for the process of distance
learning of a future specialist, to create and experimentally test such models for higher education,
based on the principles and specific means of distance learning and adequately changing the
ways of organizing the educational process , predetermines the prospects for its further
comprehensive research in order to improve the concept of distance education development in
the country.
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