Transition to a Distance Learning Format: The View of Teachers and Students

Abstract

In the present conditions, distance education is developing very rapidly. Probably, now almost everyone has tried distance learning (both schoolchildren and adults are trained, for example, in advanced training courses). However, there is a constant debate about different training formats: which is better and better – traditional or distance learning? The quality of training in both formats depends on many factors, including the knowledge and skills of the teacher (knowledge, both within their discipline, and the ability to use various platforms for distance learning), and the student's readiness to learn. Representatives of the scientific community, as well as teachers and students, as well as parents of students, have an ambiguous attitude to the quality of distance education. The article examines the results of various modern studies on the identification of opinions of both teachers and students of higher education institutions about the forced abrupt transition to distance education in the current situation with the spread of coronavirus, presents the results of studies conducted in 2006 and 2019 on the possibility of choosing a distance learning form for education, and identifies some problems of the transition of education to a distance format.