2020 pretends to turn into a watershed year for distance learning in the world. Although distance education Implementation has been being spreaded too slowly during last ten years. Even single forward representatives of Groves of Academe, been developing and implementing all these tools into their own activity without any additional outside funding, were mistrusted and construed e-learning as only their teaching activity auxiliary tool that wasn’t able to be commercialized en masse [1].
I recommend to read about reasons of why humankind has been moved from the Industrial Era to the Information Era during so long time in my article [2] and about the complete scenario of the distance learning market development in my articles [1; 6; 11]. But the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic has already changed the distance learning market, catalyzed its development and commercialization under the conditions of the industrial society’s integration into the Information Era on the global level. The pandemic has opened up to humankind and demonstrated radically new opportunities that are too difficult to be given away. In particular, it is about a new experience of working from home, shifting towards electronic document flow, virtual meetings, remote projects, that expand the collaboration boundaries. For example, more than 37% employees would like to continue working from home after quarantine is over [3]. The requests of ‘remote working’ increased by 83% [3]. And Twitter allowed its employees to work at home forever [4]. As we can see, #STAYHOME has turned into a global exploratory experiment of every life sphere that can help to understand how much it will be able to keep up its altered or adapted state and further. Humankind has its next accelerating transformation into the Information society (read more [5]). A long term of occupancy in the quarantine changes a human and his or her view of life at an accelerating pace. Someone fails a test, other changes a lifestyle. In the future we will be investigating what kind of changes actually come over our world, being put on hold for long by the quarantine. But now let’s take a closer look at distance learning just. It should be also highlighted that it is about the distance learning on the basis of Moodle e-learning platform. Its use perspectiveness and effectiveness are shown in [6].
So the potential target audience of distance learning (teachers and students) en masse has had to implement this educational tool practically during the quarantine. One part of them, who has gained some negative experience or had no opportunity to use distance learning tools during this time, falls into disenchantment with the distance learning form. And from the psychological point of view a person always shelters every own activity this person has done, particularly if corresponds with some salaries and emoluments [7]. As displacement of human labour by machinery of weaving looms was provided with sabotage of workers because of their worry about a loss of jobs, the distance learning implementation could be followed with attempts of most Groves of Academe to reset to the previous teaching. But this epoch-making confrontation of a human versus a machine is unavoidable and it has to make agree and invent of the best way for their proportional integration for the next steps of the information society development. It is important to realize the fact that the total safe retune to the previous state of reality before the end of 2019 is not expected. It will be some leapfrogs through different influence of the outside environment (next season phases of the quarantine). They will pull the global world away from traditional education every time after time.
In contrast to the first group, the other part of e-learning market subjects was able to test most strong sides and advantages of distance learning and even got accustomed to it. And in the future it will be very difficult for a person to refuse something gotten into the habit.
During the quarantine the experimental investigation of distance learning perception was conducted among the participants of e-learning courses. And the singularity of this study referred to an unusual experimental realization period.
First of all, the distance learning form affords an opportunity to feel an absence of a human factor influence to a rating mark of student’s training results by a teacher. It should be reminded that the training result means ‘knowledge, skills, values, other personalities, formed during a process of education, mental training and development, which can be identified, planned, estimated and measured and the person is able to demonstrate on completing… some training components’ [8]. On the basis of this the rating mark that the student receives has to be an indicator of the student’s stage of reaching a normative. And the ‘normative’ means the setting of some norms, standards, which regulate rules of what is ‘right’ and ‘normal’ under certain specific conditions [9].
An appraisal of these training results has to be objective. But under the conditions of an outside human factor of traditional form of learning, it always turns into a subjective indicator. This is reflected in the fact that the student’s previous activity during the training process will influence and determine the final training results. Psychologically, it actually develops the teacher’s attitude to the student. For example, if the student wasn’t able to complete some assignments in time, was behind time, was absent in classrooms or at consultations by the certain teacher, this student wouldn’t receive an automatic rating mark. Therefore the student will be transferred to the exam. And it is highly likely the student will not pass it with distinction. Even if the student answers all questions, the teacher will be able to ask him or her some other question that the student will not answer by a way the teacher approves.
The fact, that the student is transferred to an exam or a quiz during an additional term, is a preconceived and stereotyped idea of a poor level of student’s knowledge. However this point of view could correlates to the reality in some cases. But situations could also be very different. Under the conditions of our hyperdynamic environment, every our acting is an alternative to the spectrum of other many irons in the fire which also have to be done at the same definite time period but are not done because of priority given to the initial acting. During some years long humankind has been entering into blow-up regimes [10] when all processes around us are picking up speed at an exponential rate. Under these conditions the number of such the alternative and equivalent in priority activities is rising up. Psychological stress is rising too. And someone gives up. Someone stops any activity at all although falls into lasting vacillating between equivalent in priority cases. Moreover some other situations are also possible. For example, although an admission to a assessment, a student failed to turn up for it during a substantive session. It would look as if the student was not ready to get a credit. But later it emerged that the student lived in a rural area where all buildings were left without electricity and roads were drowned through the rainstorm that day.
If view the rating as a level of student’s achievements of the training results, the factor of previous behavior disappears under the conditions of the distance learning and the machine form of exam passing. Therefore if there is a computer based examination, a list of questions is identical as for students, who have been performing all assignments properly in time during a training process, and for all others.
Automated parts of distance learning courses turn into some training simulators with an opportunity of delay and multiple using. For example, the student can hear a traditional lecture for just once at a certain time and place to learn some theoretic work material of it. But a video-lecture is available on a distance e-learning course at all reasonable time, it can be put on hold, be attended repeatedly for several times. And it is possible to check own knowledge by passing tests. I’d like to highlight that in my childhood I also tried and tested a distance learning prototype. It was my home schooling. And I am able to evaluate the results and benefits in dynamic. My parents took me away from school after the first term time of my primary school. And this opened up new vistas for me to graduate two classes in one year and finish school with honors externally. Therefore distance e-learning is like a fitness center: training results depend on aspirations and abilities of a participant to achieve a defined level of success.
As we can see, the distance e-learning market gives a high degree of freedom. And it should be highlighted for its future decade that this market will enter into the third step of its development – into the commercialization process (according to The Three-step model of distance learning courses commercialization [11]). Additionally to this, it corresponds as to business-to-consumers markets and to business-to-business markets too. After the pandemic any advance trainings in the traditional form will became more unsafe, too cost and too continuous event compared to its alternative distance form. Indeed distance e-learning courses propose a adaptive flextime, luck of expenditures for journey, social engagement in a new and unknown community, independence from other outside factors (a human factor of the assessment process, a geographic location, weather and a year season, light conditions and so on), an opportunity of being on-the-job of priority, healthy hygiene, ecological compatibility and cost-cutting. And distance learning will be developing a new habit of its using as it has been said before.
It should be also mentioned that at the today’s step most distance e-learning courses have a consulting support by its teacher or its developer and consultant. It is very important and valuable for the market, because if there are some questions, a user receives a human “live” consultation. An existence of a human factor of this consultation makes it much more easy for the people to be transferred to the new virtual reality of the Information society. And the fact, that this consultation is individual, is particularly valuable. This opportunity remains to be available till course developers, being interested in automation and scaling up, remain be still ready to invest their sources into the deep testing of their courses. But when the critical value of users’ questions is achieved, this part of the distance e-learning courses will be automated too and the human factor will be taken away from it.
Sure, none of the innovative technologies is able to replace live communications of a teacher with students and their real emotions as well as a disk record or a movie cannot replace the live concert of a symphonic orchestra, the voice of a world-famous singer and the atmosphere of an operatic theater. As well as none of trips by bullet trains or supersonic aircrafts is similar and able to recapture a trip by the cart with the horse when the field flowers fling their fragrance or the forest leaves rustle in the open. But such usual and common things will turn into luxury that not everyone will take the liberty to have in the future under the conditions of the Information society where time is the main economic value [12]…
I’d like to present you the short-length nonfiction-film about my own transfer to the distance teaching during the pandemic. It includes some historical chronicle and some parts of the virtually conducted researches that have gathered video-feedback of the immediate participants of my distance e-learning courses during the quarantine. As you can see, movies can also be created virtually in the remote mode. I invite you to watch this virtual nonfiction-project.
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