The impact of global and national challenges on the development of distance learning in Ukraine

Abstract

Distance education, as a pedagogical phenomenon, was first introduced into educational practice in the nineteenth century. It was implemented through the use of paper letters to send and receive homework. However, its ideas, although modified procedurally, began to be used on a large scale only two centuries later. A number of factors contributed to this, which can be divided into global (the COVID-19 pandemic, globalisation, the development of digital technologies) and national (the Russian-Ukrainian war, education reforms). Given the great interest of the educational community in distance learning technology, the purpose of our article is to determine the impact of global and national challenges on the development of the distance learning system in Ukraine. In the process of achieving this goal, we have studied the psychological and pedagogical source base on the research issues, as well as analysed the results of observing the practical component of distance learning implementation in educational institutions of different levels. It has been established that the impetus for the active development of distance learning in Ukraine was the quarantine restrictions caused by the coronavirus disease COVID-19, and subsequently the full-scale war that was launched by Russia against Ukraine. In the course of the study, we briefly identified the advantages and disadvantages of using distance learning technology in educational institutions. It was found that the development of e-learning and digital transformation strategies is valuable in this context. Despite the visible advantages of distance learning as an attempt to overcome the challenges that affect the effectiveness of Ukrainian education, the author also identifies the disadvantages of such learning. In view of this, we believe that research related to minimising the negative factors of introducing distance learning into the practice of various types of educational institutions is promising. As well as the development of ideas on the use of various online platforms that will help ensure the accessibility of education in the face of challenges, both global and national.