Digitalization Issues Of Educational Process In Specialists Training In The Jurisprudence Field

Abstract

The development of science and technology, the introduction of the latest digital technologies in public relations entail the need to improve the educational process. Existing mechanisms, including legal ones, do not allow to train "specialists of the future". Repeatedly domestic and foreign law researchers designated a priority development of the educational process in the direction of developing students' competences, allowing in practical and professional activities to work in the "multitasking" and "stress resistance". The widespread use of databases and digital technologies requires from "specialists of the future" not the knowledge of the provisions of the law, but the skills to search for the necessary information in electronic systems and databases. However, it was not correct to underestimate the lack of basic knowledge, since the lack of orientation of a future specialist in any branch of law will artificially stretch the process of searching for the necessary information and, quite possibly, lead him to work with unreliable information. Thus, the relevance of the research topic is primarily due to the need to study the features of the use of digital technologies in the educational process in the study of legal disciplines. The stated topic is very broad, so we will limit ourselves exclusively to the sciences of the criminal law cycle.

Keywords: Criminal law disciplinesdigitalizationeducational technologiesjurisprudencelaw

Introduction

Studying the problems of implementing higher education is one of the priorities of any modern legal state. Their solution will allow the state to optimize the procedure for training highly qualified specialists in various industries and fields of activity. Speaking about the training of specialists in the field of law, it is worth noting that the quality of their training fully affects the effectiveness of their future activities. This is especially noticeable in law enforcement. Inoculating a high level of legal culture in combination with teaching by practitioners allows them to develop a sense of intolerance to illegal behavior, thereby cutting off a certain percentage of students who in the future allowed the commission of self-serving criminal acts using their professional duties. However, it is impossible to achieve such an effect at one time, since the process of obtaining higher education is characterized by a long period of time.

We believe that the foundation for solving the stated problems is primarily a strict regulatory and legal consolidation of mechanisms for the implementation of higher education in terms of the use of advanced educational technologies in the process of mastering the necessary competencies. The tough position of the legislator, along with a clear regulatory framework, should first of all take into account the financial and economic capabilities of a particular educational institution.

Problem Statement

The main problematic issue of modern education in Russia is the interaction of regulatory and legal support of existing methods of implementing higher education in combination with digital educational technologies. Coburn and Penuel (2016), Darling-Hammond et al. (2017), Gentry et al. (2008), Liao et al. (2017), Xie et al. (2017) and others studied the questions about digitalization of the educational process. The current state of affairs is due to the extremely rapid development of science and technology, the emergence of the latest cybernetic research methods, and the widespread use of big-data technologies. In other words, the state and society represented by educational organizations do not always keep up with new trends. This phenomenon is most acute in the sphere of interaction between educational institutions and employers. So, the latter are actually the driving force of modern progress, since the optimization of labor activity allows achieving production tasks, both in the private and public sector. And, accordingly, employers are primarily interested in hiring competent specialists. Hence there is the need for their preparation. Thus, the purpose of this study is to develop ways to solve the problems that arise in the training of specialists in the field of law at the present stage. We would also like to note that the stated problems are of a very large-scale nature, since their presence was noted by a number of foreign researchers in the field of legal and pedagogical sciences.

Research Questions

To effectively solve the stated problem, in the framework of this study, we have formulated a list of the following research tasks:

- to study the legal framework governing the process of obtaining higher education in the Russian Federation;

- to study scientific publications of recent years on the declared subject;

- to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the activities of individual higher education institutions for the implementation of digitalization of the educational process;

- identify the main problems that arise in the activities of educational institutions at the present stage;

- on the basis of the acquired knowledge to form a model that can solve the digitalization problems of the educational process in Russia.

We would like to note that the results of the study reflect the subjective views of individual researchers. Therefore, the findings of the scientific study are not the only correct ones. We consider it necessary to conduct further scientific developments on the stated topic.

Purpose of the Study

The modern period of development of institutions of society and the state is characterized by a very wide spread of digital technologies. Most modern legal states, including Russia, have defined the priority of using information and electronic technologies. Moreover, in our country, the introduction of digital components is one of the national strategic tasks. Digitalization of the educational process, according to foreign researchers in the field of law, is a landmark phenomenon of the modern era of human development (Goodman, 2011).

Already, there is a new trend in the training of "specialists of the future", which is characterized by the formation of students' skills in information search, and not an exceptional accumulation of theoretical knowledge. Moreover, such a phenomenon is very appropriate, since with the development of science and technology, means of communication, electronic libraries; it minimizes the need to visit ordinary libraries, reading rooms and open lectures. Since this knowledge can already be obtained without leaving home, using a personal computer. Here there is a difficulty in finding this information on the Internet. Therefore, it is rightly noted by researchers that it is necessary to focus on the formation of students' skills in owning personal computers and using electronic networks.

Extremely active attention is paid to the digitalization of the educational process at Samara State University of Economics, especially in the implementation of educational programs of higher education in the field of law. So, students in the study of disciplines of criminal law cyclo use special software. Close cooperation with leading organizations and enterprises allows not only to change the approach to training specialists in this field, but also to improve the material and technical base of the university by attracting investments. So, recently, the university has updated the technical and forensic base, purchased universal forensic suitcases, special mannequins-simulators and software products (for example, a virtual inspection of an accident scene).

In the future, it is planned to introduce electronic attendance logs by creating an internal digital ecosystem, which generally meets modern trends in the educational sphere. Thus, the existing trends in the development of the educational process in Samara State University of Economics allow us to say that the university plans to continue to occupy a leading position on the market of educational services in the future. We are already actively working to attract new strategic partners, including the executive authorities of the Russian Federation (the FSB RF The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation), the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation), the prosecution and the judicial system bodies.

When implementing educational programs, the latest research methods are used, including modern cybernetic ones, with the help of which students can get all the necessary general cultural and professional competencies and be in demand on the labor market. However, not all educational institutions adhere to the presented development strategy. This is primarily due to the weak financial base of the educational institution and the lack of strategic partners.

We would also like to pay special attention to the issues of material and technical support of higher educational institutions. Thus, when implementing professional training of specialists in the field of law enforcement activities, the federal state educational standards of the Russian Federation provide for holding lectures and practical classes in specially equipped classrooms. This rule is applied when teaching such disciplines as "Criminalistics", "Methods and tactics of crime investigation", "Forensic expertise", "Expertise and expert activity" and "Forensic medical expertise". The development of practical skills in conducting procedural actions and elementary expert studies, combined with the study of theoretical material, can have a positive impact on the formation of student's appropriate general cultural, cultural and professional competencies. Thus, higher educational institutions actively purchase special technical means, including unified forensic suitcases, mannequins for the production of investigative actions, dactyloscopic tablets, as well as special software consisting of forensic accounting programs. It is well known that the study of applied and special legal sciences is impossible without a practice-oriented approach. A significant problem in the implementation of the above-mentioned approach is the extremely rapid pace of development of forensic technology. Simply, higher education institutions do not always have time to replenish their material and technical base in a timely manner. We believe that this problem can be solved by involving the founder (the relevant department or ministry) to pay compensation for the procurement of such equipment. In turn, it is also necessary to pay attention to the specifics of the implementation of prosecutor's supervision and departmental control over the activities of higher educational organizations. For example, the legislation of the Russian Federation provides for special procedures for monitoring and evaluating the quality of educational activities of educational institutions. Such procedures are carried out every five years. Their positive result is the issuance of appropriate certificates that confirm the necessary level of quality of educational services. However, law enforcement practice has known cases where such procedures were exclusively "formal" in nature, which led to a distortion of the reality. This issue is the subject of another study, so in the framework of this work, we consider it inappropriate to study the issues of countering criminal actions in the provision of educational services. However, this factor should be taken into account when considering the peculiarities of passing accreditation procedures by higher educational institutions in the Russian Federation.

Research Methods

This study was conducted on the basis of both general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis, deduction, generalization, and with the use of private scientific methods (which are actively used in the study of disciplines of the criminal law cycle): comparative-legal; system; historical-legal, etc. Comparative legal analysis was used to identify the features of views on issues of general theoretical nature on the subject under study. The system-structural method made it possible to generalize the main directions of legal thought of research on the subject under consideration and determine the vector of their further development. The methods and techniques of the historical and legal method allow us to study the educational process through the prism of history, thereby identifying negative historical experience and avoiding its manifestation in the future when constructing a model containing solutions to the raised questions. In preparing this study, we actively used modern cybernetic methods, with the help of which we studied various statistical databases over the past few years.

Findings

Thus, on the basis of the conducted research, we came to the following conclusions. Firstly, it is necessary to reconsider the question of the correlation of research activities and the essence of the educational process in the development of disciplines of the legal cycle. We are convinced that science and education are not identical components. The main task of education is the assimilation of all the necessary competencies that are peculiar to its future activities, and for science it is the solution of problems that arise in the process of all human life. Repeatedly, domestic researchers in the field of law expressed the opinion that the inclination to active scientific activity in the process of obtaining higher education leads to a deterioration in the quality of scientific publications, the substitution of concepts and the emergence of pseudoscientific positions regarding any phenomena, which in general leads to a slowdown in scientific activity.

Secondly, we consider it extremely important to make more hard decisions in the field of legal regulation of the educational process from the point of view of material and technical support of higher educational institutions. For example, the development of the subjects of criminal law cycle is not efficient in the absence of specialized classrooms to simulate the judicial process, teaching rooms, which it is possible to hold classes in applied disciplines, including "Criminalistics", "Criminalistics examination", "Examination and examination activity", "Forensic medicine", etc. The students have to possess not only theoretical knowledge in these areas of scientific knowledge, but also possess practical skills. Moreover, the latter is largely a manifestation of a practice-oriented approach in the educational process.

Thirdly, to ensure the above-mentioned measures, it is advisable to tighten control over educational organizations by the supervisory authorities of the Public Prosecution Office of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, by conducting appropriate checks for compliance with the provisions of the legislation on education.

Fourthly, We would like to raise the issue on the effectiveness of combating crime in the provision of educational services. Analysis of law enforcement statistics over the past few years shows a very steady increase in the number of detected cases of corruption crimes committed in the field of higher education (Guryanova et al., 2019, 2020). This factor, as previously mentioned, is beyond the scope of this study, however, we consider it necessary to develop more effective measures of criminal law counteraction to criminal actions in the field of economic security of the state. For example, in some cases, the conducting of intermediate attestations in educational institutions proceeds in a different procedure from the one provided for by federal legislation, which in general does not contribute to improving the quality of educational services. This issue is quite relevant, and requires appropriate measures from the state.

Fifthly, it is necessary to pay special attention to the strategic partnership of higher education institutions. As previously mentioned in this study, educational institutions need to interact with potential future employers of graduates. With the participation of partners, it is possible to hold various scientific and practical events: conferences, symposium and seminars. Moreover, their involvement in the educational process significantly contributes to the implementation of a practice-oriented approach, which generally contributes to the training of in-demand specialists on the labor market. The recommendations and conclusions presented by us are primarily subjective views of individual researchers in the field of legal sciences. We are convinced that this issue needs further research and development.

Conclusion

The solutions formulated by us are not a restriction of the freedom of educational organizations, but on the contrary will allow us to follow a unified approach in the process of obtaining higher education. The above-described measures will allow to prepare in-demand specialists on the labor market. We believe that the complete placement of social spheres, including education, on the rails of a market economy in the absence of proper control by the state will lead to deterioration in the quality of educational services. This could result in negative consequences in the field of ensuring the national and economic security of the state. This is especially true for the training of specialists in the field of law. Thus, inadequate quality of education entails not only the lack of necessary knowledge and a low level of development of professional competencies, but also inoculating an insufficient level of legal culture. The latter is especially evident in future professional activities in the form of a lack of intolerance to illegal behavior, which is extremely important for future investigators, prosecutors and judges. Thus, improving the educational process allows to solve many problems that arise in the process of law enforcement and law-making activities, and also strengthen the authority of the Russian Federation on the international arena as a modern legal state.

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30 April 2021

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Osipov, D. D. (2021). Digitalization Issues Of Educational Process In Specialists Training In The Jurisprudence Field. In S. I. Ashmarina, V. V. Mantulenko, M. I. Inozemtsev, & E. L. Sidorenko (Eds.), Global Challenges and Prospects of The Modern Economic Development, vol 106. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 1539-1544). European Publisher. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2021.04.02.184