Emergency Organization Of E-Learning For Law Enforcement Officers

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problems of creating a successful digital educational environment in the higher educational institution. The issues of extreme passing from the common realization of educational modules to the organization of distance training at the Academy of Management of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia (hereafter – Academy) are considered. Research methods comprise conducting pedagogical experiment (questionnaire study) of 73 Academy students, including an unstructured interview of these respondents. Various aspects of implementation of programs of studies in the conditions of distance training are examined from the standpoint of the Academy students. The authors highlight students’ assessment of advantages and disadvantages of organizing e-training course in extreme conditions. Significant attention in the course of study is paid to the examination of the evaluation of role and level of a teacher’s preparedness to deliver online classes, pedagogical monitoring of actual students’ progress in distance studies, and the objectivity of evaluation of educational results made during interim testing and final certification. The article defines the challenges and problems of organizing online teaching course in extreme conditions and outlines some possible ways to overcome them.

Keywords: Digital educational environment, educational program, e-learning, information and communication technologies, remote mode

Introduction

The development of a common worldwide educational space imposes new requirements for the organization of learning process and development of new pedagogical technologies. New approaches to the organization of higher professional education have promoted the extensive evolution of computer technology means in the field of education.

In Russia the digitalization of higher education is regulated by the federal legislation. The government should solve the task of creating a modern high-quality digital educational environment accessible to all types and levels of education by 2024. In this regard, the issue of organizing high-quality e-learning process in a higher educational institution becomes a priority. This issue is particularly acute for the world scientific and pedagogical community in times of extreme situations, which dictate strict terms for passing from the common realization of educational modules to the organization of distance training.

Problem Statement

Owing to the spread of a new coronavirus disease, from March 16, 2020, by order of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, all Russian universities were recommended to organize remote mastering of educational programs by the students. However, the Russian higher education system was not ready to switch to distance learning as soon as possible. According to the multi-disciplinary analytical center NAFI, 63% of university teachers rated the technical equipment of their educational organizations as «satisfactory», while only 35% of the teachers expressed the opinion that the higher education system is ready to transfer classes to remote mode.

The fact that the Academy has successfully implemented information and communication technologies in the educational process for several years, undoubtedly, had a positive impact on the solution of tasks set before the educational organization. The Academy applied a high-quality video conference software True Conf which allowed to organize emergency remote training of the law enforcement officers in the difficult period of the pandemic both, at the workplaces of police officers and with the help of their mobile devices.

Nevertheless, the teachers, along with the students of the Academy, met a number of challenges while passing to remote implementation of training sessions in the conditions of coronavirus disease. There was a need to develop new solutions and implement educational technologies of distance learning that correspond to the specifics of a particular situation.

It should be noted that e-learning is currently being increasingly used by the higher educational institutions of our country. A number of Russian researchers have examined the problems of elaboration and introduction of new online teaching technologies: Osipova and Goreva (2014), Kegeyan (2015), Skorikova et al. (2016), Pavlutskaya and Dubitskaya (2016), Leontyeva (2017), Lomonosova (2018).

In the works of foreign scientists, significant attention is paid to various approaches to organizing e-learning and improving its quality and effectiveness: White (2006), Sole and Hopkins (2007), Hanson (2009), Mohr et al. (2012). Foreign researchers also scrutinize the evaluation of online learning educational results from the students’ standpoint: Hilgenberg and Tolone (2000), Sampson (2003), Işık et al. (2010), Rashid et al. (2013), Emrah (2015).

Nevertheless, regardless of the great deal of interest of scientists in the problems of creating a successful digital educational environment in the system of higher education, the issues of organizing an emergency transition from traditional training of students with elements of distance learning to remote access training have remained insufficiently studied in the Russian and foreign specialized literature. Moreover, the question of how the organization and content of distance learning course in Russian universities meets the expectations and needs of students continues to be not fully understood. In this regard, it becomes quite obvious that many problematic aspects of organizing high-quality e-learning in extreme conditions require a deeper analysis and determination of ways to cope with identified difficulties.

Research Questions

Adjustment to new e-teaching technologies has not only opened up new opportunities for students and teachers, but also created many challenges, including the need to answer questions such as:

• Does e-learning lead to poor-quality education?
• Is it possible to effectively use training materials developed by teachers for classroom classes in a distance mode?
• Is it possible to provide high-quality pedagogical control of the acquired knowledge?
• What solutions to problems should be found to perfect the quality of long-distance education? etc.

Purpose of the Study

The aim of the research is to determine problems of organizing e-learning in extreme conditions and ways to overcome them. The authors consider the Academy students’ opinion on realization and subject matter of the educational program in remote mode. Considerable attention is paid to the examination of a teacher’s role and contribution in the successful implementation of the online training courses. The authors will also attempt to identify main advantages and disadvantages of extreme arrangement of online classes for the law enforcement officers of the Academy.

Research Methods

To determine the problems of organizing e-learning in extreme conditions and ways to overcome them, an academic investigation (survey) was conducted. 73 Academy students were interrogated to discover solutions to basic problems. Acquired data were analyzed based on a 10-point Likert scale questionnaire. In the course of questionnaire study, when working with this scale, students expressed degree of their consent or denial with each statement by using the following marks: 1. - excellent, 2.- very good, 3. - good, 4. - satisfactory, 5. - unsatisfactory. This five-point grading scale made it possible to discover the opinion of each student to each individual statement. The complete evaluation of issues by the Academy students was calculated as the result of overall assessment of each individual judgment made by them.

In the course of survey, an unstructured interview of respondents was also carried out to find out the basic advantages and disadvantages of online teaching from the students’ standpoint.

Findings

The outcomes of the above-mentioned survey are represented in the following tables:

Table 01 shows that overwhelming majority of the Academy students (79%) expressed the opinion that the implementation of the educational program in remote mode was generally successful and can be rated «excellent» and «very good», which indicates a relatively sufficient level of readiness of the educational organization to switch to remote mode in an extreme situation. The majority of students (60%) also rated the organization of the training course as «excellent» and «very good». But, the remaining respondents (21%) rated the level of implementation of the educational program in the remote mode as «good» and «satisfactory», which requires rethinking of some organizational aspects and developing appropriate solutions. This is also evidenced by the ratings of 40% of the respondents who believe that the organization of the distance training course was less successful and deserves ratings of «good» (28%) and «satisfactory» (12%).

50% of the Academy students expressed their approval about the content of teaching material for providing online training sessions. On the other hand, the academic staff should be concerned by the fact that 41% of the respondents estimated the content of teaching materials for providing online classes as «good» and «satisfactory». Thus, the practice of implementing an educational program in remote mode has shown that it is impossible to conduct training sessions in videoconferencing mode based on lesson plans and teaching materials developed for working with a group in the classroom. There is a need to reform the curriculum, adapting its modular components to the psychological characteristics of students’ understanding of teaching material in remote mode, reduction of training time, individual skills of students and needs of whole group.

A questionnaire study has showed that 88 % of students approved the content of teaching material for self-study, while 76 % of students admitted the usefulness of video lectures course. On the other hand, it is impossible not to note that 55 % of students were not satisfied with the effectiveness of multimedia presentations of teaching material and estimated it as «good» (44%) and «satisfactory» (11%).

Table 02 shows the students’ evaluation of the degree of teachers’ preparedness to work remotely, their contribution to the successful realization of the digital course of learning, the level of pedagogical control and the objectivity of the teachers’ assessments of the acquired knowledge. It follows from the Table 02 that most students highly estimated the contribution of teaching staff in online implementation of educational modules (81% of the respondents evaluated the statements as «excellent» and «very good») and the degree of their preparedness to work in remote mode (65% of the respondents assessed the statements as «excellent» and «very good»).

Pedagogical monitoring of actual students’ progress in distance studies has acquired rather high grades from the majority of students: 84% of the respondents evaluated them as «very good» and «good». However, the fact that only 16% of students gave the highest rating «excellent» cannot but cause concern on the part of the teaching staff.

The highest marks were obtained by the statement indicating objectivity of evaluation of educational results made during interim testing and final certification in a remote mode: 93% of the respondents rated it «excellent» and «very good». The maximum correctness of teachers’ assessments of students’ educational results obviously arises from such significant component of long-distance education as exclusion of corruption. At that point, we would like to mark that this component of long-distance education has not yet been widely described by domestic and foreign scientists.

In the course of survey, an unstructured interview of respondents was also carried out to discover three most significant advantages and disadvantages of online studying from the following list:

advantages:

• a new function of a teacher – to coordinate learning process;
• lack of any time and place limitations;
• a high level of self-management and self-determination of students;
• possibility for autonomous obtaining of information;
• opportunity to keep on learning without discontinuing professional duties implementation;
• ability to govern speed of studying educational material depending on the peculiarities of an individual thinking;
• intensifying the degree of student’s responsibility for the educational results.

disadvantages:

• impossibility to arrange a dialogue between a teacher and students, accepted in the common form of education;
• unavailability of interpersonal communication during online classes and possibility to collate educational results achieved by students;

In the course of unstructured interview of respondents, the authors made an attempt to discover the most significant advantages and disadvantages of extreme arrangement of online teaching from the students’ viewpoint. The outcomes of this analysis are represented in Figures 01 and 02.

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As it follows from the diagram, the most significant advantage of online teaching for the students is the opportunity to keep on learning without discontinuing professional duties implementation (56% of respondents). The students also highly appreciated the ability to realize a high level of self-management and self-determination while mastering educational program (30% of respondents) and the lack of any time and place limitations (14% of respondents). Nevertheless, considering the fact that about 44% of the respondents did not regard this parameter as an advantage, it should be stated that not all students demonstrate conscious attitude to educational results. In our opinion, a teacher must practice permanent control of students’ educational results to motivate them to govern their study time and educational progress independently.

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Among the most significant disadvantages of extreme arrangement of online teaching, the students pointed out poor quality of video conferencing during periods of high server load (61% of respondents); impossibility to arrange a dialogue between a teacher and students, accepted in the common form of education (30% of respondents); cutting down the bulk of teaching material content and study time (14% of respondents). The outcomes of this analysis require teachers to find ways of overcoming these difficulties and assisting students in mastering online training programs.

Conclusion

Although the unplanned moving to remote learning has resulted in a significant progress in the field of digital education, the emergency passing to online studying has displayed some problems that call for new ways of their solution. Making a conclusion, we would like to propose some ways of overcoming the difficulties revealed in the course of this investigation. We think it is necessary:

• to upgrade the digital technical support of a higher educational institution;
• to work out methodological requirements for long-distance education and online teaching materials;
• to provide a high-quality pedagogical control of actual students’ progress and final educational results in distance studies;
• to invent effective multimedia presentations of teaching materials;

to establish appropriate models of a teacher’s communicative collaboration with students.

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