Digital Twin of an Educational Institution: An Innovative Concept of

Blended Learning

Liubov A. Kartashova

1 a

, Andrii M. Gurzhii

2 b

, Valentyn O. Zaichuk

2 c

Tamara M. Sorochan

1 d

and Feliks M. Zhuravlev

University of Educational Management, 52A Sichovykh Striltsiv Str., Kyiv, 04053, Ukraine

National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine, 52A Sichovykh Striltsiv Str., Kyiv, 04053, Ukraine

State University of Economics and Technology, 5 Stepana Tilhy Str., Kryvyi Rih, 50006, Ukraine

Keywords:

E-Learning, Blended Learning, Digital Twin.

Abstract:

The actuality of this work lies in the fact that it features and singles out the problems occurring in organization

of educational process during the period of forced breaks and formed needs of information society. It high-

lights the necessity of introduction of blended learning used to support the educational process continuity and

to ensure the formation of motivation and interest of students/learners in process of knowledge acquirement.

It shows the need to update the educational environment in conditions of digital prototype of educational insti-

tution, created in order to provide quality knowledge and ability to build an individual development trajectory

for each learner. For the ﬁrst time the use of state-of-the-art Digital Twin (DT) technology has been proposed

to build a digital prototype of educational institution. It is shown that this technology is quite actively used

in various ﬁelds. An analytical review of successful DT practices and clariﬁcation of problems caused by

COVID-19 quarantine leads to the conclusion that DT can be used effectively in slowing down and limit-

ing the spread of the disease, as well as preparing for possible long-term disruption of school attendance by

learners. It is assumed that the usage of DT for each educational institution requires the creation of authentic

digital environment (web environment) aimed to support the educational process in blended learning format

and based on integration of traditional teaching aids and digital resources. It is justiﬁed that the involvement of

DT in education will logically combine physical and digital spaces as well as functional components of each

educational institution and create their digital prototypes, which will actually function as dynamic and open

web resources. DTs open to all participants of educational process the opportunity to obtain quality results in

any circumstances that may be dictated by the society, while maintaining the integrity of educational system

and pedagogical values of each educational institution.

1 INTRODUCTION

The experimental process of urgent introduction of

distance learning technologies in 2020 became global,

with forceful involvement of educational institutions

(EI) all over the world quickly entering the digi-

tal world. It is already clear that this process has

launched an innovative path in the development of ed-

ucational systems in all countries. In the nearest fu-

ture, distance learning in various formats will be im-

proved and gain capacity. Which, in turn, will lead to

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changes in popular traditional teaching methods and

approaches or to total reformation of educational sys-

tems in general – digital technologies (DT) continue

to transform modern classrooms, teaching methods

change according to expectations and learning styles

and interests of students/learners.

Referring to DT potential in the ﬁeld of improve-

ment of teaching and learning, alongside with increas-

ing access to information and data management coor-

dination, the researchers claim that rapid changes will

force most EIs to either adapt or cease to exist (Mc-

Cluskey and Winter, 2012).

Analytical research shows that forced disruption

of educational process caused by COVID-19 quaran-

tine has become a powerful stress-test for educational

systems around the world; this disruption, as a “vor-

300

Kartashova, L., Gurzhii, A., Zaichuk, V., Sorochan, T. and Zhuravlev, F.

Digital Twin of an Educational Institution: An Innovative Concept of Blended Learning.

DOI: 10.5220/0010931100003364

In Proceedings of the 1st Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology (AET 2020) - Volume 2, pages 300-310

ISBN: 978-989-758-558-6

tex” event, also gave them the impulse to elaborate al-

ternative long-term education development plans. Af-

ter all, we realize that the educational process and

cooperation of its participants may no longer be car-

ried out in the traditional format. It is known that the

COVID-19 pandemic has closed educational institu-

tions around the world, and the UNESCO report dated

March 18, 2020 stated that “more than 899 million

young people were affected” (Otsu, 2020). It is note-

worthy that as of March 24, 2020 various countries

have already developed the emergency plans includ-

ing the following:

• continuous provision of information and training

related to virus spread and impact (France, USA,

Italy);

• creation and training of working groups consist-

ing of counselors and teachers to support parents

and pupils / students (USA);

• deployment of online classes (China, Singapore);

• training of teachers and directors (EI) for remote

work (Italy, United Kingdom, China).

Some countries, as soon as in March 2020, have

provided for future backup plan of educational insti-

tutions closure, both at the national level (e.g. China,

Italy, Korea, Japan), regional level (e.g. France,

Germany, Portugal, Spain) and narrow specialization

level (e.g. USA, United Kingdom). The Estonian

Ministry of Education put forward the idea of cooper-

ation with neighboring countries and free exchange of

information resources on the Internet with the world.

With participation of three Baltic States, Latvia and

Lithuania, as well as northern Denmark, Finland, Ice-

land, Norway and Sweden, more than 40 online learn-

ing solutions were collected. At the end of March,

there was also held a webinar for parents from Esto-

nia on the subject how to approach home schooling

organization (Otsu, 2020).

It is clariﬁed that higher education institutions

in almost all countries of the world are the most

provided with Internet materials and electronic ed-

ucational resources (EER), as many of them have

provided distance education services using online

courses in the last decade. As an example, we can

cite the following resources:

• powerful electronic database of educational

and scientiﬁc materials of Duquesne University

(guides.library.duq.edu, 2020);

• resources for teaching on the Internet Institute of

Food Technologists (www.ift.org, 2020) (USA);

• resources for teachers and researchers (Japan)

(Toho University media center, 2012);

• ezines, ebooks and databases to which Osaka Uni-

versity attracts other universities (Osaka Univer-

sity Library, 2012), Kyoto University provides

university staff with ezines (about 40,000 titles),

ebooks (about 50,000 titles) and databases (about

100 types) (Kyoto University Library Network,

2016) etc.

However, all above mentioned cannot be system-

atically and in full volume attributed to primary and

secondary education. That is why there is an urgent

need to address this issue as an explosive problem.

2 COVID-19 AS THE DRIVER

FOR BLENDED LEARNING

We have found a number of new solutions to solve the

problem of learning disruption, such as:

• Assistance to the Malala Foundation – it helps

to shape global and national responses to the

COVID-19 challenge, which in some particular

countries are manifested in the following formats

(www.malala.org, 2020):

– Nigeria – Cooperation with school teachers and

education authorities has been intensiﬁed with

the purpose of implementation of radio pro-

gram that broadcasts school lessons, includ-

ing reading, writing and STEM. Radio program

helps Nigerian children who do not have access

to Internet resources to learn on the radio.

– Lebanon – the following digital educational

solutions are offered: development of digital

lessons on the basis of state program in the

scope from kindergarten to high school; these

lessons are now available to everyone on the

Internet. These solutions also provide training

for teachers helping them to conduct interactive

classes at a distance.

– Pakistan – there has been developed a digital

application called Taleemabad, which digitizes

Pakistan’s national curriculum. Taleemabad

broadcasts cartoons of standard lessons for all

who cannot attend EI. In order to respond to

growing demand caused by the pandemic and

to cover at least one million pupils / students

across the country, Taleemabad is expanding its

national curriculum and broadcasting lessons

through the educational television program.

• Northern Macedonia – access to new digital plat-

form with video classes and game-based learn-

ing activities for usage by teachers of primary,

vocational and higher education institutions has

Digital Twin of an Educational Institution: An Innovative Concept of Blended Learning

301

been made available in shortest possible terms

(eduino.gov.mk, 2021).

An analytical review of educational process or-

ganization experience in conditions of COVID-19

spread shows that educators in many countries be-

gan to develop and implement emergency plans quite

quickly. It is clariﬁed that the managers of educa-

tional sectors are aware that in current conditions var-

ious forms of Internet education an EER development

and use should be mobilized. In general, EER are

aimed at slowing down and limiting the spread of the

disease, as well as at preparation for possible long-

term disruption of EI attendance by the participants of

educational process. As UNICEF spokeswoman Pa-

tricia Di Giovanni said in spring 2020: “Our teams

have been working day and night during past two

weeks to ﬁnd a solution to ensure that children’s

right to education is not violated by a new measure

to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the country”

(UNICEF, 2020).

Due to intensiﬁcation of anti-epidemic measures,

the pupils in Ukraine have been prohibited to attend

schools from January 8 to January 24, 2021, at the

same time EI have been entitled to announce vaca-

tions for this period. It is already known that at this

time the educational process was carried out in re-

mote format, while in future it is planned to con-

tinue training in traditional full-time format. How-

ever, no one can guarantee the use of only one for-

mat (full time or remote) even in the nearest future.

As the experience of 2020 has shown, educational in-

stitutions must be organizationally and methodically

prepared for the transition to one or another format,

without compromising the quality of educational pro-

cess. According to (Holiver et al., 2020; Kukharenko

and Oleinik, 2019; Spirin et al., 2019; Vlasenko et al.,

2021; Zinovieva et al., 2021), one of the options to be

chosen for realizations of this problem can be readi-

ness for introduction of blended learning. We believe

that this format of learning organization quite effec-

tively combines the advantages of traditional learn-

ing with distance learning. As it has been found, the

term “blended learning (hybrid learning)” has differ-

ent deﬁnitions in literature. In general, it is a combi-

nation of ofﬂine and online learning in various propor-

tions. The concept emerged in the 1990s as a counter-

weight to online learning (blog.ed-era.com, 2019).

Caraivan (Caraivan, 2011) grounded that blended

learning involves the use of two or more different

teaching methods, i.e. a combination of methods that

meet the needs of pupils / students, regardless of the

subject they are studying. It may include such combi-

nations as:

• traditional training sessions with online learning;

• online instruction with access to the teacher;

• modeling with structured courses;

• on-the-job training with some informal classes;

• management coaching with distance learning ac-

tivities.

At the beginning of the XXI century, the concept

of blended learning appeared in discussions about ed-

ucation, at the time when the concept of distance

learning began to lose its credibility. In conditions

of distance learning format, students were not highly

motivated and independent; they felt isolated and un-

supported by teachers during their studies. Thus,

there was determined a necessity to ﬁnd new concep-

tual approaches allowing to avoid obligatory changes

in distant learning and to provide a supplement for it

(Caraivan, 2011).

Jarman (Jarman, 2019) give several reasons why

blended learning should be used:

1. Obtaining qualitative results of learning. As con-

ﬁrmation, we use the results of the study con-

ducted at the Iowa University: 95 % – best per-

formance rate of students who studied in blended

courses section; respectively 82 % – in sections of

lecture halls and 81 % – learning on the Internet

only.

2. Encouragement and growth of pupils / students

independence. Using distance learning, students

learn to set and manage personal learning tasks. In

addition, blended learning contributes to their aca-

demic responsibility while maintaining the con-

trol needed for support. As blended learning uses

online programs, students can learn at their own

pace and according to their personal level of un-

derstanding and perception of information, thus

building an individual learning trajectory.

3. Preparation of pupils / students for functioning in

conditions of society focused on DT. Thanks to

integration of DT teachers have the opportunity

to ensure better preparation of students for future

professional careers and civic life..

4. Reduction of training costs. From an adminis-

trative point of view, blended learning is a good

investment because it maximizes the saving of

costs obtained in the result of online learning.

Blended learning can reduce the need for EI fa-

cilities, their repairs and maintenance. Reduced

workload of teachers may result in achievement

of higher ration of teacher-to-student communi-

cation and more efﬁcient use of time.

5. Improving the effectiveness of cooperation. pupils

/ students can meet with teachers and other pupils

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/ students whenever and wherever. At the same

time educators can ﬁnd better ways to cooperate.

Teaching in a team mode is much easier in online

environment, where everyone gets the ﬂexibility

to work on their own schedule.

6. Formation of interest and motivation to study.

Nowadays some students ﬁnd online programs

and software more interesting than standard full

time sessions. Blended learning can break the

monotony of the traditional classroom by intro-

ducing information and concepts into different

contexts. Of course, DTs can be a distraction,

but they can also present information in new and

exciting ways, including interactive software, 3D

animations, and video games.

We see it necessary to add that blended learning

can take the ﬁrst place among other formats and be-

come popular and necessary in the nearest future.

Given the prospects of blended learning as an in-

novative model of education, which is relevant not

only in the period of quarantine restrictions, we em-

phasize the speciﬁc features of educational process

management during its implementation.

In conditions of blended learning the organiza-

tional accuracy of educational process which is pro-

vided in management through change of educational

process schedule, acquires a special value. In condi-

tions of stable functioning EI can determine the peri-

ods of distance and full-time training, their sequence

and duration. Under conditions of quarantine restric-

tions, periods of distance and full-time training may

be held not under schedule, but spontaneously, de-

pending on the epidemiological situation. Therefore,

one of the ﬁrst managerial tasks is to establish an ac-

curate schedule of educational process and provide

recommendations to its participants on actions in case

of unplanned changes.

In management of blended learning, communi-

cation between managers, teachers and students is

changing. It cannot be the same in at full-time train-

ing, as the possibilities of direct contact are limited.

This necessitates the deﬁnition of methods and re-

sources for communication to solve a set of tasks of

various levels and orientations. In particular, dur-

ing periods of distance learning the main focus is

placed on communication between teachers and stu-

dents both in course of educational process and in

format of individual work, tutoring, counseling, men-

toring and more. Communication between managers

and teachers, as well as between teachers themselves,

can take place both in face-to-face and remote mode

at all stages of educational process.

The next factor inﬂuencing the management in

conditions of blended learning is the necessity to

change the scientiﬁc and methodological support of

educational process. Educational content is being

changed and updated in view of peculiarities of full-

time and distance learning, respectively, the pro-

grams, training materials, learning evaluation criteria

for students etc. require consequent adaptation. We

can say that at present stage of blended learning intro-

duction the problems of scientiﬁc and methodological

support are becoming relevant (deﬁnition and struc-

turing of content, teaching methods, assessment).

Thus, blended learning leads to changes in man-

agement of educational institution-digital twin in

three main areas: educational process organization,

its scientiﬁc and methodological support and commu-

nication between its participants.

3 DIGITAL TWIN OF

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION

The format of blended learning introduced in EI dig-

ital twin should open the possibility for unimpeded

transition from traditional to distance learning and

vice versa. This is explained by the fact that in or-

der to prevent EI closure, it is but natural to suggest

that teachers should use digital tools to complement

the traditional format of teaching. After all, accord-

ing to experts, “every week of EI closures leads to

considerable losses in development of global human

capital with signiﬁcant long-term economic and so-

cial consequences. Accordingly, the governments and

Education Ministries of many countries have already

developed plans that summarize the following items”

(OECD, 2020):

• Use of existing online distance learning platforms

– learning management systems (LMS). It is im-

portant that at present online platforms can in-

corporate training courses and resources in digital

formats (text, video lectures, etc.), usually with a

bank of relevant EER. Typically, teachers can se-

lect lectures and exercises assigning them to stu-

dents for usage through synchronous lessons. In

educational institutions where such platforms do

not exist, open EER can similarly be used.

• Development of new open online educational plat-

forms (virtual classrooms) – teachers can re-

motely teach their pupils / students while they are

at home, using various platforms. Some “virtual

audience” services already exist within countries,

and they have been located in China and Singa-

pore, regardless of ownership type.

• Partnership with private educational platforms –

one of identiﬁed difﬁculties in usage of existing

Digital Twin of an Educational Institution: An Innovative Concept of Blended Learning

303

EERs is that their mass simultaneous use is not

always possible. In order to empower educational

institutions, some platforms belonging to private

sector have already opened their own EERs with

free access just at the beginning of global quar-

antine (for example, in China and Japan (Saiki,

2020)).

• Cooperation at the international level for consol-

idation of existing online EERs – although ed-

ucational institutions in different countries, and

sometimes some regions (states) within the same

country, have different curricula, they usually

teach similar disciplines and that is why it is possi-

ble to consider the potential for the organization of

distant learning which consists in translation and

use of foreign EER and digital resources, respec-

tively, coordinating them with authentic curricula.

• Use of all necessary electronic means – return to

usage of some obsolete electronic means, such as

television or radio broadcast lessons, for regions

where the infrastructure is low.

• Providing teachers with digital learning opportu-

nities – educational policies should be aimed to

provide continuous assistance to teachers in mas-

tering of online teaching methods (for example, as

has been done in Italy). Such activities can be car-

ried out through open web platforms designed for

sharing with possibility of exchange of author’s

developments – EER.

At the same time, forming responses to possible

necessity of EI closure, educational policy makers

should consider ways to:

• care for the emotional health of pupils / students;

• making necessary technological decisions to en-

sure continuous relationships between all partici-

pants of educational process, their interaction and

support of teachers in teaching process;

• providing access to devices – pupils / students

should have access to technical equipment; re-

spectively it is necessary to start projects to

provide devices or provide alternative resources

(printed workbooks) (for example, as it is done in

the UK (www.gov.uk, 2021a,b));

• IT infrastructure access management – simultane-

ous connection of all pupils / students can be prob-

lematic in some regions of their residence, so ac-

cess to IT infrastructure should also be controlled

to ensure the quality of education for all, perhaps

even be regulated by way of setting certain time

limitations;

• balancing traditional and digital approaches used

in educational process replacement of traditional

forms of learning by digital format is likely to af-

fect both the health of students and the quality of

learning outcomes; it is logical to reduce duration

and number of lessons / classes and their combi-

nation with digital educational formats;

• security of web systems used in exams – exams

often require strict identiﬁcation of pupils / stu-

dents; Appropriate technological and software so-

lutions already exist for face recognition; intro-

duction and use of these aids must be extended.

Thus, the explosive wave of urgent EI closures of-

fered educators the opportunity to experiment, to de-

velop and to implement new models of educational

systems and new approaches to distribution and use

of learning time. Educational institutions must be

prepared to provide quality educational services, they

have already faced a difﬁcult choice of how to get pre-

pared for blended learning.

From now on, and in view of present circum-

stances, education managers around the world need to

create a model of updated educational environment.

They should answer the question: how to help edu-

cators to get prepared for execution of quality profes-

sional activities and provision of quality educational

services in updated educational environment?

The digital twin of EI is actually an updated ed-

ucational environment. The process of digital twin

functioning must be based on the same managerial

principles as actual EI, but in view of speciﬁc fea-

tures of virtual environment and digital technologies.

The functioning of digital twin cannot be seen, but

it is possible to take part in it and perform the same

functions, to act, to achieve tasks, to get real results.

To exercise the management of digital twin, EI uses

a modeling method that allows to present the main

subsystems and processes of real EI in the form of

schemes and models; it is done in order to select dig-

ital resources for appropriate support in cyberspace,

and on this basis – to involve the participants of edu-

cational process in these activities. Thus, EI will ex-

ist and function in two dimensions – real and virtual.

Thus, the task of management is to model a virtual

reality of an educational institution. When creating

a digital twin of an educational institution, the man-

agement should focus on common strategy: in virtual

dimension there must function the same educational

institution as in real life, which ensures full imple-

mentation of all functions and has clear structure.

Management process of EI digital twin includes

the components, similar to those of real EI: strate-

gic, organizational, ﬁnancial management, person-

nel management, infrastructure management, market-

ing of educational services, operational management.

These components are described below:

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304

• strategic management – determining the strategy

for the development of EI digital twin, blended

learning, as well as criteria for achieving planned

results;

• organizational management – ensuring the activi-

ties of EI digital twin, medium-term planning, co-

ordination of structural units activities, monitor-

ing the condition of subsystems, analysis of their

activities;

• ﬁnancial management – EI cash ﬂow control, cash

ﬂow directing to achieve certain goals, minimiz-

ing risks;

• personnel management – selection of personnel,

personnel preparation for implementation of tasks

related to blended learning, personnel profes-

sional activity in conditions of EI digital twin

functioning;

• infrastructure management – creation of material

and technical base to ensure the functioning of

EI digital twin, creation of comfortable working

and learning conditions, accessibility for all par-

ticipants of educational process;

• marketing of educational services and PR – pro-

motion of blended learning in the market of ed-

ucational services, meeting the educational needs

of consumers, communication with general public

in order to create positive perception of distance

and blended learning, quality assurance of educa-

tional services;

• operational management – short-term planning

and solution of current problems related to EI

functioning.

It is seen that ﬁrst of all there must be formed a

digital environment (web environment) of each sep-

arate EI, the conditions of this digital environment

should provide for the implementation of educational

process in mixed format, based on integrated use

of traditional tools and Internet resources. In turn,

the pedagogical community from now on must think

about development of innovative organizational and

methodological approaches to be used for provision

of educational services in web environment. The

conditions of above mentioned EI web environment

should be formed in view of equal access to knowl-

edge for all participants, in accordance with personal

needs and qualities. After all, according to Caraivan

(Caraivan, 2011), “The environment is a mixture

formed by mass media and various methods leading

to interactions. Educational experience is based on

memorizing interactions and practices exercised dur-

ing interaction, so that communication is, in fact, the

main “ingredient” of the mixture”.

Performed scientiﬁc researches demonstrate real-

izations of various authors, where the “Digital Uni-

versity” concept is the most remarkable.

The authors’ understanding of “digital university”

phenomenon is based on the conceptual “matrix” con-

sisting of four components: digital participation, in-

formation literacy, learning environment, curriculum

and courses design. According to the authors, none of

these components can be considered new if regarded

separately, but their combination and analysis of their

interrelations provides a holistic way to understand

the digital university (Rowell, 2019).

• Digital participation – provides for involvement

of university societies to spread the idea of univer-

sities being a public good for the whole society.

• Information literacy – stands for the idea that stu-

dents develop digital literacy skills in order to im-

prove their academic potential and opportunities

for personal development.

• Learning environment – means a combination of

digital and physical spaces that exist within and

outside the university; it is more than just a virtual

learning environment of EI.

• Curriculum and course design – these are formed

through “constructive coordination”, evaluation

and transition to the latest developments, such as

digital analytics.

McCluskey and Winter (McCluskey and Winter,

2012) offer thesis: “Digital University is fundamen-

tally different from traditional university”. Declaring

this idea the authors put forward their thesis that ed-

ucation must change in response to growing demands

for public accountability. Researchers claim that this

goal can be achieved by the usage of advanced DT

capacities.

There are many examples of digital universities

functioning in educational space of various coun-

tries. For example, “universities and educational ex-

perts from Germany, Austria, Russia, Georgia and

Ukraine are actively involved in international cooper-

ation: they have established the International Digital

Network University, thus laying the basis for educa-

tion to function by way of crossing the borders be-

tween the countries. According to the portal, “Net-

work University is a virtual association of universi-

ties and higher education institutions created for long-

term cooperation. Participating educational institu-

tions provide online training courses certiﬁed by the

European System ECTS, are recognized by all net-

work partners and can be taken by students as elec-

tives”. The most important task of network univer-

sity is to promote mutual comprehension. This is

Digital Twin of an Educational Institution: An Innovative Concept of Blended Learning

305

being achieved through structured intercultural ex-

change and joint development of educational propos-

als in the ﬁelds of education for constant develop-

ment, inter- or transculturalism, conﬂict prevention

and peace-seeking, as well as proposals for integrated

subject-language learning in German CLILiG (Con-

tent and Language Integrated Learning in German)

(www.goethe.de, 2019). The network university in-

cludes:

• University of Bremen;

• Virtual Academy of constant Development (Ger-

many);

• Ruhr University in Bochum (Germany);

• Viadrina European University in Frankfurt on the

Oder (Germany);

• Kazan Federal University (Russia);

• Tyumen State University (Russia);

• National Research University “Higher School of

Economics” (Moscow, Russia);

• Ilia State University (Tbilisi, Georgia);

• Mariupol State University (Ukraine);

• Vienna Higher School of Agricultural and Envi-

ronmental Pedagogy (Austria).

However, according to the author’s concept, there

is a necessity to develop not only digital IE (univer-

sities, schools, gymnasiums, lyceums, etc.), but, for

the most part, digital prototypes of real educational

institutions.

The analytical review of digital innovations

showed that one of the 10 best strategic trends deter-

mined by the research and consulting company Gart-

ner Inc. in 2017 is a digital technology called digital

twin (DT-technology) (Ismail, 2019; Deloitte Univer-

sity Press, 2017). The digital twin concept is based

on the idea of the convergence of physical and vir-

tual worlds, where each object receives its own dy-

namic digital representation (imprint). DT tools in-

clude powerful components such as big data, Inter-

net of Things, machine learning and artiﬁcial intellect,

which are primarily used in industry. Wide access and

use of these tools have made DT more cost-effective

and accessible for the business world, including, in

our view, the educational sphere as well.

According to Mussomeli et al. (Mussomeli et al.,

2020), “digital twins are multiplying as their capabil-

ities and sophistication grow. But full-ﬂedged real-

ization of their promises may require the integration

of systems and data into entire organizational ecosys-

tems”.

It was found that DT is increasingly used in ad-

vanced industries to achieve various goals. Accord-

ing to research conducted by the Deloitte company,

DT technology is spreading rapidly in industries such

as aerospace, retail, healthcare and others. In indus-

try, DTs are used to optimize operation and to pro-

vide maintenance of physical systems and production

processes, where digital twins are understood as dig-

ital copies of physical models with possibility to ob-

serve their behavior (both digital and physical format)

simultaneously in real time mode. Developed DTs

allow to visualize objects or to be used for evalua-

tion of technological solutions. Digital representation

of objects provides for both development of individ-

ual elements and functioning dynamics of its physical

analogue. In the industrial sector, there are too many

digital twins (equipment, systems, separate machines,

or even enterprises) which are developed before the

startup of large-scale and high-speed production (ske-

lia.com, 2020). That is, DTs can imitate any aspect

of physical object or process. According to the De-

loitte report, the global market of DT technologies

will reach the point of $ 16 billion by 2023 (Mus-

someli et al., 2020). We have identiﬁed several deﬁ-

nitions for the term “digital twin” (Ismail, 2019; Gart-

ner, 2020):

• digital representation of real object or system;

• software analogue of physical device simulating

internal processes, technical characteristics and

behavior of real object under the inﬂuence of in-

terference and environment;

• fundamental technologies evolving and covering

physical and digital spheres and make it possible

to obtain increasingly important digital results;

• digital copy of living or non-living physical ob-

ject;

• digital replica (imprint) of potential and actual

physical values, processes, people, places, sys-

tems and devices.

Researchers suggest the following classiﬁcation

of DT (www.it.ua, 2020):

• Digital Twin Prototype (DTP). The DTP duplicate

contains the information needed to describe and

create physical versions of real objects; this in-

formation includes geometric and structural mod-

els, speciﬁcations, and conditions, as well as

cost model, calculation (design) and technologi-

cal models of the object. A DTP duplicate can be

considered as conditionally constant virtual model

of the object.

• Digital duplicate instances (Digital Twin In-

stance, DTI). DTI of object describes a speciﬁc

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306

physical instance to which duplicate remains as-

sociated throughout its life. DTs of this type are

created on the basis of DTP-duplicate and ad-

ditionally incorporate production and operational

models which include history of work produc-

tion, applicability of materials and accessories,

and also statistics of failures, repairs, replacement

of assemblies, aggregates, etc. Thus, the DTI-

duplicate of the product is subject to change in ac-

cordance with changes of physical object in pro-

cess of operation.

• Digital Twin Aggregates (DTA). DTA is deﬁned as

an information system for management of physi-

cal instances related to family of objects; it has

access to all of their DTs.

According to classiﬁcation given above, each type

differs in functionality, complexity and technologies

integration level. In summary, we can conclude that

DTs can be divided into digital models of system, cer-

tain line and separate component of certain line. Dig-

ital twins can form connections between all objects

of real physical system and enable cooperation in the

team/teams and interaction between teams. While

functioning in DT mode, you can create, assign, and

track tasks meeting business priorities and needs of

real facility. We can single out the reasons of sudden

demand for digital twin technologies (Ismail, 2019):

1) they bring considerable value to business and be-

come essential for digital strategies;

2) the rapid growth of digital technologies introduc-

tion is explained, in particular, by active mar-

keting and organization of training performed by

their suppliers.

Nowadays, given that DT technologies have rather

strong support from IT giants, including IBM and

SAP, various companies have already paid close at-

tention to digital technologies. Already now, in times

of forced quarantines, it has been reported that many

well-known companies have ensured the efﬁciency of

continuous production process in conditions of their

digital twins.

An important feature of digital twin is that its

functioning as a model or as a system is possible in

both online and ofﬂine modes. For the purpose of pre-

sentation and improvement, the functionality of DT

is constantly updated from several sources (Deloitte

University Press, 2017). For example, in marketing

activities, virtual avatars can provide tours for visitors

interested in DT real estate. Accordingly, in real time

mode, visitors can provide feedback and put questions

to the owners. DT also allows to organize training for

new employees for the performance of their profes-

sional duties and usage of equipment, regardless of

their location in the world.

As mentioned above, DT technology is spread-

ing rapidly in various ﬁelds and, ultimately, accord-

ing to the author’s vision, should affect education. Al-

ready in 2019, Gartner included the concept of Digital

Twins in the TOP-10 list of technological trends and

predicted that “in the near future, there will exist dig-

ital twins for billions of things” (Ismail, 2019). Over

time, the DT trend will evolve and expand – individu-

als, teams, services, businesses and even cities have or

are in process of formation of their digital twins. So,

in the coming years DT technologies can be expected

to be widely deployed in education as well. Given

the speciﬁcs and qualities of DT, we can assume that

their qualities, combined with development of Inter-

net powers, will open opportunities to monitor, con-

trol and optimize the educational process in EI both

in distance and full time traditional format, as well as

to use their integration form – a mixed format.

Due to fast interactive feedback, the emergence of

EI digital twin will help to develop innovative solu-

tions of complex educational problems – in particu-

lar, to build an authentic innovative educational web

environment for each separate EI. After all, the ben-

eﬁts offered by DT can provide many opportunities

which are not available in physical educational space

of educational institutions. Nowadays, when educa-

tional institutions have to learn to work virtually, dig-

ital twins can become the only opportunity to create

EI web environment with comfortable conditions for

the development of all participants of educational pro-

cess and for provision of quality educational services

in blended learning. We acknowledge the possibil-

ity and the necessity for building of EI digital twin,

using EER and LMS as a basis, in view of their capa-

bilities to support the entire life cycle of educational

institution. After all, DT-technology, taken as digital

dynamic resource, can ensure the creation of “digital”

or virtual “building” inside the educational institution

and provide for the following:

• to combine previously incompatible systems, re-

sources and formats in order to gain new insights,

optimize management of educational process and

remote monitoring;

• to plan and implement a sequence of production

tasks and ﬁnd ways to distribute them among the

performers;

• to provide inﬂuence at organizational level – for

EI managers there appear opportunities to develop

planning of all production processes in advance

and to manage them remotely;

• to provide control and monitoring of teachers’

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307

workplaces and conditions of real educational en-

vironment, thereby improving the experience of

EI administration staff;

• to minimize the presence of participants of educa-

tional process in EI facility and protect them from

possible risks.

It is seen that in the “walls” of EI digital twin there

should be integrated all the traditional components

of educational process and digital resources used in

teaching. The main feature of EI digital twin is the

possibility of continuous updating in accordance with

changes in its educational and technological contents,

as well as in accordance with development of digi-

tal technologies in general. According to the author’s

vision, EI digital twin, as an integral web resource,

should include all its real components in digital for-

mat:

• means of educational process organization;

• EI structure (classrooms, study rooms, electronic

library, administration ofﬁces, teachers rooms,

rooms for methodologists, psychologists, etc.);

• teams (groups) of participants in educational pro-

cess;

• total amount of workload and expected learning

outcomes of students;

• list, content, duration and interconnection of sub-

jects, disciplines, etc.;

• description and tools of internal system of educa-

tion quality assurance;

• teaching aids;

• means of technological and technical equipment;

• nomenclature and technologies used;

• system of collection and storage of educational

and methodical information – web library;

• other educational components (by decision of EI

administration).

The more efﬁcient technological systems and re-

sources are included in process of construction of EI

digital twin, the more functional educational web en-

vironment becomes, forming digital streams that add

opportunities for EI. It is assumed that in conditions

of web environment of EI digital twin it is possible to

exercise the following tasks:

• to implement management, organizational, educa-

tional processes in blended learning;

• to coordinate the logistics of institution activity;

• to conﬁgure virtual training modules for educa-

tional tasks;

• to carry out remote analysis and diagnostics of

processes taking place in each classroom.

4 CONCLUSIONS

Among the main conceptual provisions of DT appli-

cation in EI we would like to accentuate the follow-

ing: “digital representation and system support of EI

real life cycle – ensuring quality implementation of

all educational functions”. Accordingly, EI digital

twin is created to facilitate the tasks for the follow-

ing groups involved in educational process:

• manager:

– to keep in control all complexity of educational

process;

– to provide entire educational environment for

data that has been represented in various sys-

tems and EERs;

– to analyze operational data related to imple-

mentation of educational process;

– to outline the opportunities to improve the qual-

ity of educational process, etc.;

• teacher:

– to carry out educational process (including the

use of such components as: schedule, assess-

ment system, teaching materials for disciplines,

home assignments, electronic communication,

e-library, etc.);

– to implement self-learning and self-

improvement, etc.

• pupil / student:

– to gain access to quality education due to usage

of quality access and quality resources.

Although the development of operational digital

model of EI digital twin can be considered a rather

difﬁcult task for practical implementation, we should

not forget about its expected value, which mostly lies

in implementation of basic functions:

1. Ensuring support for organizational and manage-

rial decisions.

2. Reproduction of educational process in real time

mode for everyone.

3. Ensuring the integrity of educational system.

If educational institution is ready to create its

own authentic digital twin which will be an innova-

tive solution and provide comfortable and understand-

able conditions for educational process functioning, it

can proceed to development of digital twin and pre-

answer the following questions:

1. Which of the systems, processes, tools, digital re-

sources would be powerful and effective compo-

nents for inclusion in EI digital twin?

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2. What infrastructure platforms and LMS can be

used as a basis for building of digital twin?

3. How EI digital twin can reduce EI expenditures

on organization of blended learning?

The found answers will facilitate logical approach

to formation of purpose, tasks and ways of digital

twin formation, and also the choice of comfortable,

clear and accessible web toolkit of its construction.

The digital twin as a holistic web resource should

cover and combine physical and digital spaces of ed-

ucational institution and enable all participants of ed-

ucational process to obtain quality results under any

conditions that may be dictated by modern society.

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