Didactics of digital century: issues and trends of e-learning development

Formulation of the problem. Revolutionary changes in society and education due to intensive implementation of new digital technologiessuggest the revision of the traditional understanding of didactics as a science of teaching.Particularly, the widespread Web 2.0 applications have the capacity for educational institutions to extend the possibilities of e-learning.Such active approaches to learning as the professional communities' creation, the use of cloud computing, the development of mobile communications, thanks to which a large number of users have the opportunity to collect and visualize data, are becoming increasingly widespread.Consequently, development of pedagogy, which is aimed at educational goals of a higher level, is a driver of innovations in educational systems.Technologies and new modes of content delivery open up wonderful opportunities to rethink completely the teaching process.However, the traditional understanding of didactics does not meet the requirements of the digital society with the rapid development of digital technologies.This contradiction suggests that it is necessary to develop an orderly theoretical basis for e-learning -e-Didactics.Currency of the paper is conditioned by the problems of developing the theoretical basis of elearning -electronic Didactics (e-Didactics), which corresponds to the modern conceptual understanding of the role of digital technologies in the educational process.Particular attention is paid to trends in the development of educational technologies and factors that oppose their introduction into the higher education sector.The objectives of the research are to (1) consider the way technology is changing educational process in the sector of high education, leading to the emergence of a new pedagogy, (2) examine recent tendencies in the development of educational technologies that will have the most significant impact on future educational processes in higher education.Materials and methods.The process of scientific and pedagogical research was carried out using the methods of investigation.In particular, there were: analysis of scientific and educational literature on scientific research problem; comparative analysis of scientific data, generalization and systematization of pedagogical approaches concepts and practical experience of digital technologies, social media, and mobile devices implementation in teaching process, modelling of the didactic system of e-learning.Results.The results of the research in terms of its objectives are: a) the key distinctions of e-Didactics from the traditional didactics were represented; b) instructional strategies, teaching methods and digital tools as a direction for the further development of edidactics have been generalized; c) the most promising pedagogical approaches and trends which are contributing to the introduction of digital pedagogy into the higher education sector have been discussed. Conclusions. The realization of the specific opportunities provided by digital technologies for education requires the transition of the didacticsystem of e-learning to a higher level of complexity, the use of new organizational forms and methods.The results of the research should be of help for educators, methodologists and instructors in the system of professional development of higher education, as well as for all those willing to master the new didactic approaches.