Digitalization of educational activities during the coronavirus infection

Abstract

The transition to the digital economy, the new needs of the labor market, the existing digital inequality actualize the problems of digitalization of education, which is becoming the most important condition for the development of the economy of knowledge. Considering that the spread of coronavirus infection has transformed various aspects of social life and forced us to accelerate the transition to distance learning, we propose to consider the features of digitalization of the educational environment of the university on the example of the HSE. The article is based on the results of two studies: the All-Russian survey of students "Distance Education 2021" and the author's research conducted at the HSE (Distance 2021). Within the framework of these empirical projects, the goal was to find out the main directions of digitalization of universities in Russia, the main barriers to digitalization of the educational environment, as well as satisfaction with distance learning and the factors that determine this satisfaction. The level of digital technology proficiency, a quick and painless transition to a distance learning format shows the high readiness of the Russian education system to the new standards of the educational process. Students from different regions of the country showed a high level of satisfaction with the quality of online education, and when building their educational trajectories, they would prefer hybrid forms combining off-line and on-line classes. The research results have shown that satisfaction with distance education is generally lower than satisfaction with education at the HSE, and the main factors influencing satisfaction are organizational, not value-motivational. Some differences were revealed in the assessments of the educational process among students of different directions.