DISTANCE LEARNING: POSSIBILITIES, EXPERIENCE, RECCOMMENDATIONS
Authors:   Hryhorii Skovoroda University in Pereiaslav, Ukraine, Dovbnia Ljudmila , Dovbnia Petro ,   Hryhorii Skovoroda University in Pereiaslav, Ukraine
Published: August 2022

In the first quarter of the 21st century the humanity is forced to live in a complicated period of adaptation to the new conditions brought about by the intrusion and rapid spreading of mutated variants of a previously unknown respiratory virus SARS-CoV-2, which often causes severe disease form and causes death results. “Pandemic COVID-19, that enveloped modern world, placed the society on the verge of global challenges in different spheres of human existence. Because of this nowadays, like never before, there is a problem to continue an educational process in different levels establishments in the quarantine conditions. Society in general and pedagogical community in particular were not ready for these events, because of what the search for effective methods and techniques of educating students became more intense. When used wisely, the crisis in any sphere of human activities becomes a push for progress. Ukrainian education is now moving along this road, often through attempts and mistakes, distinguishing effective forms, methods and means of education” [3, p. 43]. Because of the pandemic all forms of educational interaction between teachers and students: lessons, lectures, practical lessons, laboratory lessons, different consultations, tests, exams – were forced to be conducted in distance form. It caused a stressful situation for teachers as well as students, since any innovation needs a lot of intellectual, psychological, emotional and time efforts. The teachers were faced with a task to organize distance educational process by means of electronic content transmission with the help of all accessible instruments for creating communication. Certainly, not all teachers were ready for this, since a lot of acknowledged in their field scientists and pedagogues were faced with the need to create electronic educational resources and an urgent learning of digital platforms and services. This problem was especially meaningful for humanists, for elderly, who, before the introduction of distance learning avoided the use of gadgets, and particularly – the creation of their own intellectual products with their help. They did not have basic skills of the work in digital environment, elementary technical knowledge and time to master new instruments and technologies, to understand the approaches for online transformation of a usual educational process etc. Anxiety, lack of confidence, confusion of the pedagogues, which can be noticed in the beginning of the quarantine, gradually changed into the mastering of online technologies, into the transformation of usual methodics of disciplines teaching, into the transfer of the classroom from real dimension into a virtual one etc. However, even now the pedagogical society is in search of the ways to heighten the results and effectiveness of educational process, the development of optimal methods for teaching natural sciences and the humanities. There is a lack of experience, the theoretical basis of distance learning as the main form of getting the knowledge by the students in crisis situations, the formation of proper skills are now in the process of defining and distinguishing, while practical pedagogues are called to give their intellectual contribution into the educational process and to give the materials for the analysis and development of the theoretical conclusions, based on which they can offer a new, modernized didactics. During the last decade distance learning became one of the productive and effective forms of the interaction between the pedagogues and students. Its advantages are unquestionable, since it enables to freely join the education in the most prestige establishments of Ukraine and the world, to become the participants of the video conferences conducted by the most reputable scientists and pedagogues, to pass exams, which give space for the further education etc. The processes of introducing the technologies of distance education in Ukraine were conducted mainly in high schools where the students have a high level of motivation to the education. Distance learning spread with new force because of today’s challenge, which invaded all the world – the emergence and fast spreading of the virus SARS-CoV-2, contagious and deathly one. To keep the people from having the disease and creating social distancing the governments of most of the countries introduced a strict quarantine, which, among other safety precautions, meant the distance form of work for educational establishments. It made the pedagogues of secondary and high levels of education to quickly master Internet platforms and other tools of distance interaction. Accumulated practical pedagogical experience of widely introduced distance learning needs theoretic work and generalizing to correct the didactic theory and practice. That is why it is important for experienced teachers to demonstrate the results of their own searching, conclusions and methodological recommendations. The possibilities of distance learning tools are very wide and the better the pedagogue masters it, the more perfect his/her didactic system, as well as the educational process, becomes. Surely, you cannot interchange “live” communication with the students by the distance technologies, that is why we look at distance learning as a temporary process, however its elements have introduced themselves into our life and will not be deleted.Based on our own experience of pedagogical activities in the pandemic conditions, we consider it suitable to demonstrate methodological recommendation for increasing the effectiveness of learning process: to use different educational web-resources and online platforms, interactive exercises, virtual blackboards etc.; to give the students the links for multimedia materials, educational video films, video and audio recordings of lectures and practical lessons to understand educational material; to keep feedback you can suggest your students to use online testing; to analyze and assess all types of tests, practical works, tasks and other kinds of individual work; to conduct extra individual online consultations; during the conference to work no more than 30 minutes with a little break afterwards; to use interactive methods to stir up the mental activities of the students; to use the system of hyperlinks for extra informational materials; to choose the tasks that heighten educational motivation of the students; you should organize group work for communication between your students using distance learning tools.