Educational Policy In The Modern World: Challenges And Prospects

Abstract

The development priority of modern education is its optimization and the introduction of information technologies. More and more attention is paid to the spiritual and moral development of the personality of students, education of citizens in the interests of social progress in Russia on the basis of the principles of individuality and subjectivity of the educational process, and its program-targeted organization. The changes taking place in the economic sphere put forward new priorities for the educational sphere - the training of professional personnel who, in the new changing conditions, could carry out professional activities with a value reorientation towards initiative, creativity, and enterprise. Such personal qualities have a positive effect on the professionally important qualities of a highly qualified specialist - professionalism and competence. There are many scientific studies indicating the widespread use in the educational process in universities of the so-called blended learning, which combines traditional teaching technologies and the use of electronic resources. Various methods of transferring knowledge to students are considered and proposed, various pedagogical technologies are used, in which more and more importance is given to an individual and personality-oriented approach to students. It is too early to talk about the old, traditional forms of classroom training as outdated, with no further prospects of use. Many authors note the need for a differentiated approach to teaching various disciplines using training programs that simultaneously include traditional forms of classroom studies and innovative educational technologies.

Keywords: Education, distance technologies, information technologies, informatization of society

Introduction

The national doctrine of education in the Russian Federation, among the priority tasks facing the domestic education system, identifies ensuring the organization of the educational process, taking into account modern scientific achievements; systematic renewal of all aspects of education; continuity of education throughout a person's life; creation of programs that implement information technologies in education; training highly educated people and highly qualified specialists capable of professional growth and professional mobility in the context of informatization of society and the development of new science-intensive technologies.

The need for a qualitative improvement of the educational process in higher educational institutions has become of great importance in recent years, firstly, in connection with the urgent need for their compliance with the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standard of Higher Education ++ in terms of the obligatory use of innovative educational technologies, and secondly, in connection with those difficulties, which appeared, both among students and teachers due to the coronavirus. Regardless of the direction of the educational process and the course of students, there was a need to carry out the educational process in a remote format, at a "remote location", due to the need for general isolation.

At the same time, education must reflect and take into account global trends and national interests in the educational sphere, which necessitates expanding the political and social horizons of students. The educational policy of the state reflects the national interests of the country in training professional personnel with a formed worldview, ready to live and work in constantly changing conditions, ready for international and intercultural interactions based on developed modern thinking. In this regard, great importance is attached to the implementation of business and interpersonal communications by young people on the principles of intercultural and interfaith tolerance.

Modern educational policy is part of the state policy in the field of improving culture and spiritual and moral development of the individual, Germanization of society and the strengthening of scientific and technological progress. Education is designed to prepare the young generation for life in a post-industrial, information society, the need for constant self-development and self-improvement in the face of growing competition.

Problem Statement

The development of the economy, increased competition in all spheres of employment presupposes the continuity of the education process, constant retraining or professional development of specialists after graduation. In this regard, it is necessary to improve and modernize the structure of education in accordance with the new requirements of society for the spiritual, moral, civic, social positions of youth.

Initiative, creativity and entrepreneurship can successfully develop in a person with a stable motivation to study and work, with a formed socio-psychological mindset for self-development and self-improvement. Agadadasheva (2001), notes that at present educational systems and participants in the educational process operate: “Under the conditions of an ever-increasing basic contradiction of education: between the steady growth of new general cultural, scientific, technical information and means of communication, on the one hand, the complication of requirements for graduates, on the other, and the impossibility of increasing the time spent on the learning process - from the third” (p. 62).

In connection with the above, it is important to optimize the effectiveness of the educational process in an educational institution of any direction based on a combination of traditional educational forms and modern innovative technologies (Chaikina, 2015; Savranskaya & Krasnoplakhtova, 2018), which can stimulate the development of future specialists of the necessary personal qualities that stimulate development of the processes of self-realization and self-actualization in future specialists.

Research Questions

The role of education as a factor ensuring the development of both the economy and society as a whole is increasing, the role of human capital is increasing. In the light of the above, modern education should provide the younger generation with the formation of a strong civic position, high spiritual and moral qualities that contribute to further professional and personal growth.

In connection with the pandemic in educational processes in universities, training in all areas of activity is widely used, combining traditional teaching technologies and the use of electronic resources.

For the first time, they started talking about distance learning in Russia in the early 90s. In 1995, the Concept for the Creation and Development of a Unified Distance Education System in Russia was adopted, and over the next twenty years, distance technologies have gradually found their place in the educational process (Yashina, 2019).

The pandemic forced educational institutions to urgently introduce distance technologies, which practically replaced traditional education for the period of self-isolation. In this regard, the issues of distance learning, the use of new information technologies of education and their combination with traditional forms of education have become the subject of wide discussion in society (Shevchenko et al., 2019). In our work, both teachers and students, having been forced to immerse themselves in distance learning, made certain conclusions about the advantages, disadvantages and effectiveness of the educational process using the Moodle system and the BigBlueButton Video Conference platform, as well as the use of Zoom and Discord systems.

The Moodle system, used in most modern universities in Russia, is a universal, convenient, e-learning system adaptable to the needs of the educational process in any discipline, with the ability to conduct online video lectures, seminars and workshops, individual and group consultations. When using the BigBlueButton Videoconference platform, lesson materials can be recorded and saved at the request of the teacher, which allows them to be used in the future as additional material (Glotova, 2019; Kryukov & Gorin, 2015).

It should be noted separately that during the pandemic, when all universities switched to remote and distance learning, teachers began to actively use the Zoom system to organize training sessions. Video conferencing in the Zoom system is free, technically accessible, intuitive, but it only provides lectures and practical exercises. Zoom educators have repeatedly noted that the links they create to connect to Zoom are not always reliable. Many users noted that the system is not sufficiently protected from extraneous connections. Situations were recorded when, during conferences with students, unauthorized users intervened in the Zoom work process, whose presence and behavior were often unpredictable.

The stationary Moodle system provides stable, stable communication and online communication with students in an educational course in any discipline when communicating through the Personal Account and is sufficiently protected from unauthorized interference.

Discord has similar disadvantages, which was originally developed as a communication platform with the necessary tools for informal communication.

Purpose of the Study

Comparative study of the level of knowledge and opinion of 1st year and 3-4 year students of the Institute of Economics and Service of the USPTU on the need for their future professional competence of high moral qualities, a sense of duty and justice in solving professional problems, as well as studying their opinion on the quality of the educational process on educational disciplines using the Moodle system.

The analysis of the answers of senior students was carried out after they had mastered the disciplines of a general humanistic orientation - "Professional ethics and etiquette", "Technologies of business interaction", "Fundamentals of pedagogy of vocational education and additional professional education", "Ethics and psychology of environmental legal relations". The educational process for all students was carried out using the innovative electronic system Moodle and the BigBlueButton Videoconference platform for online lectures and practical classes, as well as Zoom and Discord systems.

Research Methods

The study of the views of 92 1st year students of the Institute of Economics and Service was carried out in the initial period of study by analysing the answers on the questions of the necessary personal qualities in the profession and the effectiveness of the application of innovative technologies in the educational process. Among them were 69 girls and 23 boys.

The analysis of the answers of 85 students of 3-4 courses on questions characterizing their knowledge of the necessary personal qualities for the chosen profession and questions regarding the use of innovative technologies in the educational process was carried out after training in the disciplines "Professional ethics and etiquette", "Technologies of business interaction", "Fundamentals of pedagogy of vocational education and additional vocational education", "Ethics and psychology of environmental legal relations." Among them were 64 girls and 21 boys. That is, the gender groups were homogeneous.

An analysis of the opinions and views of 1st year students of the Institute of Economics and Service of the USPTU on the regulation of human behaviour showed that 65% of them choose the answer - the desire to achieve the necessary welfare and material well-being. Answer 72% of 3-4 year students - behaviour is regulated by a stable internal system of moral principles, a sense of conscience and responsibility.

When asked what can be called the responsibility of a mature person, 58% of 1st year students answer - readiness to achieve recognition of their merits and success in professional activity, 67% of 3-4th year students choose the answer - a person's willingness to act according to established norms, an objective assessment of their own actions, readiness for sanctions in case of violations.

An increase in self-esteem when gaining recognition in the work collective is chosen by 54%, and - with an increase in material well-being by 56% of 1st year students. In the 3-4 year, an increase in self-esteem when gaining recognition in the work collective is chosen by 74%, and - with an increase in material well-being by 26% of students.

Analysis of the opinions of 1st year and 3-4 year students of the Institute of Economics and Service of the USPTU on distance learning showed that students, on the one hand, successfully adapted to the conditions of distance learning (57% of the 1st year students surveyed, and 71% of 3-4 courses). 25% of 1st year students and 18% of 3rd and 4th year students, and another 18% of 1st year students and 11% of 3rd and 4th year students indicated that the level of motivation decreased due to self-isolation.

Thus, distance learning was found to be quite convenient by the majority of students. Its advantages consist in saving time, including through trips to the university; the opportunity to study anywhere where the Internet is available; instant access to electronic libraries, all necessary reference systems and knowledge bases (Belyuchenko et al., 2020). We also agree that a positive feature of distance learning is “the opportunity to receive education for everyone, regardless of the state of health” or other subjective characteristics of the student (Shevchenko & Ivko, 2018; Veledinskaya & Dorofeeva, 2015).

When evaluating specific distance learning tools, students especially noted Moodle-BigBlueButton, citing as a significant advantage the system's security against penetration of unauthorized users. In addition, in the Moodle system, the teacher himself decides on which topics students answer orally in the BigBlueButton online system according to the general university schedule, and which tasks in the course under study students will complete independently. Students send independent assignments for verification in the course itself in the form of a file, or in the form of text on the proposed topics. In the middle and at the end of the course, students undergo intermediate and final testing interactively in the Moodle system, while the scores for students' tests are carried out automatically by the system itself.

Also, the Zoom and Discord systems received quite a positive assessment from the students, which, while not being specialized educational tools, were nevertheless experimentally used in the learning process. At the same time, distance technologies using Zoom and Discord have several significant disadvantages, the main of which is the dependence of the learning outcome on discipline and self-control skills on the part of the student. Unfortunately, modern young people, for the most part, do not possess such characteristics. This indicates the need for even greater individualization of educational methods, which automatically increases the workload of already overworked teachers several times.

When characterizing the effectiveness of training during a pandemic, 59% of all surveyed students (and 1 and 3-4 courses, in general) noted that distance learning using the Moodle-BigBlueButton system could well replace traditional forms of education, 9% of students said, that distance learning is not more effective than traditional education. According to 32% of the respondents, a high-quality result of the educational process presupposes a combination of traditional education and its distance learning.

Findings

An analysis of the answers of 1st year and 3-4 year students on the issues of the necessary personal qualities in the profession they receive showed that the level of knowledge on ethics and morality rises by the 3-4 course, which can be associated with a change in their worldview and value moral norms after passing the disciplines of a general humanitarian orientation - "Professional ethics and etiquette", "Technologies of business interaction", "Fundamentals of pedagogy of vocational education and additional professional education", "Ethics and psychology of environmental legal relations."

Conclusion

The study of the use for distance education and conducting classes with students online revealed the convenience and comfort of the Moodle system and BigBlueButton video conferencing in the study of disciplines of various directions.

The research carried out makes it possible to recommend the widespread use of electronic programs in various disciplines in the Moodle system for distance and blended educational process. As you can see, both the traditional form of training and the distance learning format have both advantages and certain disadvantages. However, the greatest effect can be achieved with a reasonable combination.

References

• Agadadasheva, I. V. (2001). Acmrologicheskie problem korrectionno-razvivaychego obucheniya. [Acmeological problems of correctional and developmental education]. Shuya. in Rus.

• Belyuchenko, O. P., Zhdamirova, I. V., & Kotova, E. I. (2020). Distacionnoe obrazovanie “Za” i “Protiv” [Distance Education: "For" and "Against"]. Academy, 8(59), 44-45. in Rus.

• Chaikina, Zh. V. (2015). Socialnie I technicheskie servisy: problem I puti razvitiya. [Technologies for assessing learning outcomes. Social and technical services: problems and ways of development]. Nizhny Novgorod: Nizhny Novgorod State Pedagogical University named after Kozma Minin. in Rus.

• Glotova, M. I. (2019). Organizaciya samostoyatelnoy raboti studentovs ispolzovaniem obrazovatelnoy sredi MOODLE. [Organization of asynchronous independent work of students using the electronic educational environment MOODLE]. Bulletin of Orenburg State University, 5, 108-117. DOI: 10.25198/1814-6457-222-108 in Rus.

• Kryukov, V. V., & Gorin, A. A. (2015). Razvitie innovaciyv VUZe na osnove cifrovich technologiy. [Development of innovations in the university based on digital technologies]. Informatization of education and science, 2(26), 34-51. in Rus.

• Savranskaya, K. S., & Krasnoplakhtova, L. I. (2018). Technologii distancionnogo obrazovaniya. [Distance education technologies]. Science and education issues, 7(19), 194-195. in Rus.

• Shevchenko, O. I., Korshak, D. A., & Ushakov, A. V. (2019). Razvitie distacionnogo obrazovaniya. [Development of distance education]. Innovation in Science, 1(89), 22-25. in Rus.

• Shevchenko, O. I., & Ivko, V. I. (2018). Formi distancionnogo obucheniya v VUZe. [Forms of distance learning at the university]. Innovative Science, 12, 175-178.in Rus.

• Veledinskaya, S. B., & Dorofeeva, M. Yu. (2015). Smeschannoe obuchenie: technologiya proectirovaniya uchebnogo pricessa. [Blended learning: technology for designing an educational process]. Open and distance education, 58, 20-27. in Rus.

• Yashina, L. I. (2019). Distancionnoe obuchenie v VUZe: soderjanie I technologii. [Distance learning at the university: content and technologies]. Bulletin of the Surgut State Pedagogical University 1, 15. in Rus. https://doi.org/

  Google Scholar

  Crossref