FORMATION OF STUDENTS’ READINESS FOR E-LEARNING

According to one of the existing definitions, distance education is a system of training, academic, information and communication technologies aimed at students educating via the Internet. Based on this definition, it is possible to outline the range of organizational, academic and maintenance challenges which have to be dealt with by any university that intends to implement e-learning system or its elements. That said it is important to understand that the whole range of these activities, despite their importance and complexity, is just a preparatory stage which is aimed at creating a necessary framework for e-learning. Solving these problems generates another challenge, which is not less complicated - it is an arrangement of educational process. Unfortunately, a significant portion of Russian teachers perceive e-learning as storage of teaching materials or any sort of e-library, rather than as an interactive learning technology. Problems and errors are supposed to be identified empirically and eliminated as they are discovered. We consider this approach as non-constructive, since the implementation of educational process in untested system can lead to negative consequences at an early stage and discredit the concept of e-learning in the eyes of students. From our point of view it is unreasonable to start the full-scale system inculcation right after filling it with educational content and users’ authorization. It is advisable to conduct a thorough testing of the system before proceeding to the next step in order to assess the level of students’ readiness for working in e-learning mode. Thus, lack of propaedeutics in e-learning arrangement at a university can lead to utmost negative consequences. In this case students can have a kind of fear of this educational technology and a great deal of reluctance to use it. Based on the foregoing, we conclude that e-learning system demands serious advance preparation of both students and teachers in the framework of any university. Relying on our own experience we suggest some ways of solving this problem.

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