Solving the Problem of Adaptation to Online Learning: The Path to
Sustainable Development of Education
Svetlana M. Kutsenko
a
, Svetlana F. Malatsion
b
and Elena A. Saltanaeva
c
Kazan State Power Engineering University, Krasnoselskaya st. 51, Kazan, Russian Federation
Keywords: Sustainable Development, Digital Education, Online Education, Pandemic, Educational Content,
Questionnaire, Adaptation, Control and Measuring Materials.
Abstract: The article attempts to summarize the most common difficulties in the transition of students and teachers to
online education in higher educational institutions and outline ways to solve them in the light of sustainable
development of digital education. In the context of an emergency transition to exclusively distance learning,
students have developed problems associated with a decrease in motivation to learn, deterioration of health,
with the disfunction of the relationship with the teacher, an insufficient level of material and technical
equipment of workplaces, the lack of a stable Internet connection and the inability to self-organize. The
teachers noted the shortcomings of online learning associated with an increase in the time to prepare for
classes, a decrease in the level of feedback from students, a decrease in the quality of education of students,
etc. The teaching community got the opportunity to rethink the organization of the educational process in new
conditions and find approaches to solving the problems that arose in connection with the transition to online
learning. Educational institutions must solve problems related to organizational, legal, economic,
psychological issues that arose when organizing distance learning in a pandemic: ensuring the availability of
educational content, using high-level digital developments, creating high-quality control and measuring
materials to check the formation of competencies, accounting for additional labor costs of teachers during
online training implementation, etc. Sustainable development of education, including its digital
transformation, are priority areas in the strategy of the state development.
1 INTRODUCTION
During the pandemic, heads of universities and other
educational organizations organized the work of the
teaching staff and students exclusively in the
electronic information and educational environment.
Most of the universities were ready for such a quick
transition to distance education of students due to the
timely created or adapted support base for distance
learning (Abramyan and Katasonova, 2020). Since
the abrupt transition to online learning was a forced
and urgent measure, not all educational institutions
and individual teachers were ready for a radical
restructuring of the educational process. The reason
for this is the different level of development of the
information infrastructure, the provision of
disciplines with educational resources, the readiness
a
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7024-798X
b
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7264-6615
c
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0430-9748
of teachers to use platforms and services in the
educational process. Each educational institution has
its own set of tools and scenarios for the
implementation of distance learning: LMS platforms
for posting content and testing students' knowledge,
video conferences for online lectures, messengers for
communication between teachers and students, and
sending information by e-mail. The media have
repeatedly raised questions about the possible
replacement of traditional forms of education with
online education without losing quality. At the same
time, the economic benefits of such a transition were
mentioned. In the articles there was a substitution of
the concepts of "online learning" and "educational
technologies" used in the context of an emergency
transition to distance learning. This caused a heated
discussion in the parental environment and the
620
Kutsenko, S., Malatsion, S. and Saltanaeva, E.
Solving the Problem of Adaptation to Online Learning: The Path to Sustainable Development of Education.
DOI: 10.5220/0010594906200625
In Proceedings of the International Scientific and Practical Conference on Sustainable Development of Regional Infrastructure (ISSDRI 2021), pages 620-625
ISBN: 978-989-758-519-7
Copyright
c
2021 by SCITEPRESS Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
teaching community, which was reflected in
numerous publications (Kiselev, 2020; Kutsenko and
Malatsion, 2020.; Frolova, Rogach and Ryabova,
2020; Neborsky, Boguslavsky, Ladyzhets, Naumova
and Anisimov, 2020.; Dozhdikov, 2021).
2 MATERIALS AND METHODS
At Kazan State Power Engineering University, in the
context of preventing coronavirus infection, students
of all courses and all forms of education were
transferred to the distance format in a short time. This
was facilitated by the presence of an electronic
educational environment at the university. Students
and teachers, using their login and password, had
access to their personal accounts around the clock.
From personal accounts, teachers and students had
access to information resources of KSPEU.
To stimulate the filling of the platform with
copyright electronic educational resources (EER), the
KSPEU annually held the “Best EER” competition,
the winners of which received monetary rewards.
Most of the teachers of KSPEU underwent advanced
training under the program "Electronic educational
environment of the university" and created author's
courses on the subjects taught, including the main
elements: 1) lecture material; 2) guidelines for the
implementation of coursework, laboratory, practical
work; 3) glossary; 4) questions for a test or exam; 5)
tests; 8) forum, etc.
Thus, by the time of the transition to remote
learning, thanks to the LMS Moodle platform, the
university had a sufficient number of courses in
various disciplines. These courses have passed an
internal examination and were approved by the
educational and methodological department of the
university. With the urgent transition to distance
learning, a number of teachers, with the permission of
the authors, were able to become co-organizers of
these courses, creating their own section in them.
Thus, time was gained, which is necessary to create a
separate course. Other teachers urgently began to fill
their own developments with content in order to be
able to work with students during the semester. Since
the teachers did not have experience in conducting
current and intermediate certification on the basis of
the LMS Moodle platform, the educational and
methodological department conducted training on
organizing tests, examinations, defense of internships
and final qualification works.
To conduct classes in the mode of video
conferences, Kazan State Power Engineering
University at the beginning of the coronavirus
pandemic purchased a commercial version of the
Zoom service, due to which streaming lectures were
organized with a large number of participants and
without time limits. For group sessions, educators
used Zoom's 40-minute free trial. To continue the
lesson, students connected to the conference again.
Teachers and students quickly mastered the work
in this Zoom service.
Teachers and students could take advantage of
free access to online courses from leading Russian
and foreign universities hosted on online platforms. A
number of teachers used this opportunity as additional
information on the discipline.
Long before the pandemic, various elements and
forms of distance education were used by the
university to organize the independent work of full-
time and part-time students. This form of education
was limited, because the traditional form of education
was predominant (Zainasheva and Malatsion, 2014).
However, since the beginning of work exclusively
in online mode, problems began to appear associated
with the adaptation of students and teachers to the
new format of education. The stressful situation for
all participants could not but affect the attitude
towards online learning and other distance
educational technologies. To study the problems of
adaptation, a study was carried out from September to
October 2020 in the form of an anonymous survey of
the first and the second year full-time students, as
well as teachers of Kazan State Power Engineering
University. The survey involved 307 technical
students and 67 teachers. Questionnaires were
developed to identify the problems of adaptation of
students to online learning, which contained the
following questions:
1. Is there a computer equipped with video
communication?
2. Is there a stable internet connection?
3. Did the study load increase during the online
learning period?
4. Did the motivation for learning decrease
during the period of online learning?
5. Does the quality of education suffer from
distance learning?
6. Is the distance form convenient for laboratory
studies?
7. Is the distance form convenient for practical
training?
8.
Has distance learning had an impact on your
health (for the worse)?
9. Did you quickly adapt to online learning?
10. Can you work independently without a
teacher?
Solving the Problem of Adaptation to Online Learning: The Path to Sustainable Development of Education
621
11. Is the teacher's assessment of your learning
activity objective in online learning?
The questionnaire for identifying the problems of
adaptation of teachers to online learning contained
questions (from the first to the ninth) from the
students' questionnaire and was supplemented with
the following questions:
1. Are you satisfied with the level of test items
for the current and intermediate certification of
students?
2. Does the educational process of online
learning suffer?
3. Is it difficult to assess the learning outcomes
of distance learning?
4. Is it difficult to organize feedback with
students?
5. Have you met while conducting classes in an
online conference with an unauthorized connection in
order to disrupt the class?
6. For what forms of training and in what
disciplines would you recommend using online
training?
7. Have you used open online courses from other
universities in your work?
8. Specify your specialization.
9. Specify your age.
At the end of the questionnaire, statistical
processing of the results was carried out.
3 RESULTS
The results of the study indicate that in the conditions
of online learning, students have problems associated
with a decrease in motivation to learn (48%),
deterioration in health (34%), with a disfunction of
the relationship with the teacher (lack of "live"
communication) (75%), insufficient level of material
and technical equipment (21%), with the lack of a
stable Internet connection (15%). Some of the
respondents noted their inability to work
independently without a teacher (31%) and the lack
of objectivity in the teachers' assessment of their
educational activities (27%). Nevertheless, the
majority of students quickly adapted to distance
learning (77%).
The results of the survey of teachers showed that
the period of adaptation of teachers to online learning
depended on the age of the respondents, the level of
material and technical equipment of the workplace,
and professional specialization. Many problems of
adaptation of teachers coincided with the problems of
students: deterioration of health (89%), an increase in
labor costs in preparation for classes (85%), a
decrease in the quality of feedback from students
(88%), insufficient quality level of test tasks created
by teachers in a short time during the pandemic
(49%), the occurrence of psychological problems
(15%).
4 THE DISCUSSION OF THE
RESULTS
In the process of analyzing the survey results, the
features and disadvantages of online education were
identified, which were especially pronounced in the
context of the pandemic.
1) Distance learning systems periodically freeze
due to the lack of high-speed communication
channels and the low speed of computers of students
and teachers. A number of students at home and in
dormitories do not have modern and reliable
computers equipped with video communication
systems and Internet access. This problem is still
difficult to solve, since it depends on the income of
the educational process participants.
2) Students enrolled in engineering and natural
science educational programs without classes in
subject laboratories with special laboratory
installations cannot fully acquire subject skills and
competencies obtained in the course of traditional
classroom studies, because ordinary viewing of video
materials will never replace live communication with
the teacher and independently conducted experiment.
3) The labor costs of teachers working remotely
increased many times, since work with students was
carried out not only in a group, but also individually.
4) A number of students were found to have low
motivation and interest in independent subject,
research, search activities in the process of online
learning.
5) During online learning, communication
suffered from the remoteness of the teacher and the
student, students did not have quick feedback,
because there were no prompt answers from teachers
to current questions arising in the process of solving
an educational problem.
6) There was a lack of objectivity in assessing the
educational activities of students (the results of
practical classes, laboratory work, etc.), associated
with the problem of independence in the
implementation of individual tasks. Successful
students independently completed assignments and,
as a rule, shared their results with classmates, and the
teacher did not have the opportunity to identify the
true author of the completed assignments and was
ISSDRI 2021 - International Scientific and Practical Conference on Sustainable Development of Regional Infrastructure
622
forced to evaluate almost the entire group with the
same scores.
7) The educational process has suffered, since it is
formed with direct classroom contact between
students and teachers. Nothing can replace live
communication between a teacher and a student.
8) The complexity of the transition of teachers of
the older generation to remote work was revealed,
since these teachers are accustomed to traditional
classroom teaching. The assimilation of new
technologies, and in a short time, led to the fact that
teachers were in a stressful state.
9) Not all educational and methodological
complexes (lectures, laboratory classes, workshops,
assessment tools, etc.) have been converted to digital
format for organizing distance learning.
10) During the midterm and current certification
online, the teacher was limited in assessment tools.
The experience of conducting current and
intermediate attestation in remote access conditions
showed that teachers mainly used tests as assessment
tools, which did not sufficiently reflect the formation
of the necessary competencies. Tests that had to be
constructed urgently did not always meet the
methodological requirements for such evaluative
tools. If the teacher used an oral conversation or a
written survey as an assessment tool, then it was
difficult to control the independence of the task,
because there could be various sources of information
in front of the student that were out of sight of the
teacher.
11) Working for many hours in front of a
computer screen negatively affected the health of
students and teachers.
12) The work experience has shown the insecurity
of online conferences conducted by the teacher from
unauthorized connection of intruders trying to disrupt
the lesson. The teacher spent time solving this
problem.
13) There were psychological problems
associated with the fact that new formats of education
cause a feeling of rejection, both among teachers and
students.
14) The wide range of applications used made the
work of teachers and students difficult, as they had to
learn the basics of working in each of them. The
teachers lacked the skills to work in a digital
environment, time to master new tools and restructure
the educational process.
15) The provided opportunities for access to open
online courses could not ensure their full-fledged
development by students, since free access to course
content did not imply methodological support for
students and teachers from universities - holders of
online courses.
5 CONCLUSIONS
As a result of the pandemic, education has received a
unique chance to conduct a global online experiment,
the results of which should determine the problems of
modern education and ways to solve them. The
teaching community got the opportunity to rethink the
organization of the educational process in new
conditions and find approaches to solving the
problems that arose in connection with the transition
to online education.
First of all, this is the problem of ensuring the
availability of educational content for students and
teachers, since all of them should have a workplace
equipped with a personal computer with access to the
Internet. This requires social support for students.
Online learning is impossible without an IT
infrastructure that requires significant investment.
To conduct laboratory exercises, it is necessary to
develop or purchase virtual laboratories. Moreover,
only the use of high-level digital developments can
bring virtual laboratory work closer to the traditional
format and form the necessary competencies
(Torkunova, Korosteleva and Krivonogova, 2020).
To carry out the current and intermediate
certification, it is necessary to systematically work on
the creation of certified tests in disciplines containing
case problems and practical tasks of various levels of
complexity. With such assessment tools, the teacher
will be confident in the formation of the necessary
competencies in their discipline (Kutsenko and
Malatsion, 2019).
In addition, it is necessary to carefully monitor
technological tools for distance education and choose
the most appropriate for the teacher and students.
Taking into account the existing variety of technical
solutions available on the market, this should be an
independent choice of the teacher. Universities need
to purchase software products that support a large
number of users working at the same time, allow
downloading and receiving large files, keep track of
attendance and evaluate the work of students. At the
same time, it is necessary to protect the used services
from unauthorized connections in order to disrupt
classe.
It takes a lot of time to develop a high-quality
online course in the discipline and to test it.
Experience has shown that it is not enough to transfer
text materials of lectures, practical and laboratory
classes, as well as tests to an electronic platform. An
Solving the Problem of Adaptation to Online Learning: The Path to Sustainable Development of Education
623
online course must meet the following requirements:
the presence of a flexible interactive online
environment, an attractive pedagogical design for
involving students in the learning process, a large
number of high-quality control and measuring
materials of various levels of complexity to control
the formation of the necessary competencies;
elimination of the influence on learning outcomes of
external factors that reduce the validity of the
assessment, the individual pace of mastering the
course, etc. (Means, Bakia and Murphy, 2014).
Online learning is not just a process of transferring
information via the Internet, but, above all, cognitive
and social interaction of participants in the
educational process.
The best result can be obtained when
implementing a blended learning format, using
elements of distance education to obtain additional
information on the studied disciplines when
conducting all types of classes online. Distance
learning is more suitable for the implementation of
inclusive education, as well as for advanced training,
obtaining a second higher education, and the
implementation of distance learning.
The workload of teachers should reflect the time
spent preparing content for the educational platforms
used, as well as the time to check the work uploaded
by students.
To solve the psychological problems associated
with the transition from traditional forms of education
to digital, it is necessary to conduct training courses
and advanced training for working in new services
and platforms (Avdeeva, Zaichkina, Nikulicheva and
Khapaeva, 2016; Nikulicheva, 2019).
It is necessary to develop a legal framework for
the provision of educational services in the context of
a forced transition to training in remote access mode.
The pandemic that has engulfed the entire world
is not over yet, and in the future, perhaps, humanity
will face similar threats. Therefore, educational
institutions should look for ways to solve problems
related to organizational, legal, economic,
psychological issues that arise when organizing
distance learning in self-isolation in order to provide
the consumers of educational services with education
of high quality. The university community should
exchange best practices in the interaction of
participants in the educational process and their
adaptation to online learning, since scientific
discussions are often closed, and research results do
not go beyond the scientific community (Kuznetsova,
2015).
All this will contribute to the sustainable
development of education, including its digital
transformation, which is a priority in the strategy of
the state development.
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