Educational Strategies of the Post-Covid Era

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic not only challenged the entire educational architecture but also revealed the total unpreparedness of both the teaching and student body to navigate the educational trajectories in an era of uncertainty and digital challenges. The terminology that showed the population's engagement in the digital reality was put to the test, and the so-called "digital millennials" turned out to be under-digitized in practice. It turned out that the necessary level of digital competencies was possessed by a fairly limited group of students and teachers. And if the insufficient readiness of university teachers for blended learning formats and forced online learning can be explained by a number of quite understandable factors, the unpreparedness of young people for an effective transition to digital formats of educational interaction has necessitated a rethinking of the entire educational landscape.Purpose: To analyze the factors that have pre-determined the difficulties of forced online learning among students in higher education institutions.Materials and Methods: Students from various metropolitan and regional universities participated in-depth interviews, implemented in three focus groups. The results of the interviews were conceptualized by the authors in order to identify the main barriers to deep digitalization through the prism of student perception. The study involved students from the 3rd, 4th courses of full-time, evening, and correspondence departments, and undergraduates from the Institute of Veterinary Medicine, Veterinary Sanitary Examination and Agro-Security (N = 31), the Institute of Applied Biotechnology named after RAN Academician Iosif Alexandrovich Rogov (N = 33), the Institute of Biotechnology and Global Health (N = 32), the Institute of Industrial Engineering, Information Technologies and Mechatronics (N = 32) of the Russian Biotechnological University, Moscow, as well as the Russian Customs Academy, Lyubertsy (N = 12) and the Tambov State University named after G.R. Derzhavin (1), who were divided into 3 focus groups: 1st group - 3rd year students from metropolitan and regional universities; 2nd group – 4th-year students from metropolitan and regional universities; 3rd group – undergraduate students from metropolitan and regional universities.Results: The obtained results allowed us to identify a range of issues among students studying in regions and major cities: (1) a sedentary lifestyle during online learning, (2) technical and psychological difficulties, (3) the inability to conduct laboratory research and experiments, (4) difficulties related to the organization of examination and credit events, (5) gaps in knowledge due to the lack of face-to-face interaction with teachers in the context of home education.Conclusion: The results obtained allow for optimizing the development and adaptation of digital practice-oriented courses and their placement on online university platforms.