Evolutionary forming stages of distance education in the world

Progress always develops providing for firstly to serve people and their interests, and to create new ways and new opportunities. The rapid growth of science and technology of present day shows a possibility of providing a new way of education to the people of the world - in the form of distance education.

If we take a look at the history of the formation of distance education (DE), we will find at sources a variety of ideas about its origin. In some scientific sources has been said that the history of DE goes back to the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th century[1].

As a result of the introduction of postal services in Europe at the end of the 18th century for the majority of the population a new opportunity to get an education was created, in this form of teaching educational materials were sent via mail to the students by teachers, wherein teachers and studentscommunicated in a written form. As for the examination, it was made as a scientific work, or was handed to a trusted person (authority). In 1840, the famous stenograph Isaac Pitman using the mail stenography-training course became the founder of correspondence education[2].

However, Russian scientists V. M.Monakhov and S. A. Shchennikov claimed in their papers that the beginning of distance education was established in 1856 by Charles Tusen, the teacher of French at the University of Berlin and the member of Society of Modern Languages in Berlin, Gustavo Langenscheidt[3].

As stated in the sources, getting higher education from a distance is initially associated with the establishment of the University of London in the United Kingdom in 1836[4].

In the chapters of history is noted particularly that United States also took new steps in the development of DE to the world, in the 1870s DE began to take shape of correspondence education in the United States, in 1873, Anna Eliot Ticknor established “Ticknor society” based on “domestic support by the education community” program for women based on the postal training. It is said in some sources that in 1874 the University of Illinois created the postal training program[5].

University of St. Andrew in Scotland offered correspondence program for conferring of "Master of Arts" degree for women in 1877. Through this program the women of entire world, including Palestine, Kenya, Chinareceived an education[6]. In 1892, William Rainey Harper who is called “a father of postal training”, organized the first Department of distance learning at the University of Chicago. In 1906, a postal education was established at Wisconsin University. In

1911 the higher education courses were opened at Queensland University in Brisbane, In 1914, a postal education based on primary school program was organized for the children who lived far from the schools. Such a system has been established in Canada and New Zealand[7], in 1939 distance learning center was established for the children with no (limited) opportunity to go to school. Today, this educational center is functioning as the largest distance education center in Europe[8].

In 1938 at state of Victoria, USA, the International Council of Postal Training held its first congress.

In 1969 the world's first distance education University had been opened in the UK. The university was named “Open University of the UK”. The reason why it was called Open was that there was no need to go to training classes often, and to create opportunity of getting knowledge through distance learning at low expense[9].

By 1920, at the American University courses, many programs would include slides and educational sources, such as moving pictures and use them in the halls during the training curriculum. This type of training in Russia appeared at the end of the nineteenth century. In 1870, the famous mathematician, engineer, and educator Karl Karlovich Mazing (1849-1926) established evening school courses: work courses and classes for people wishing to study in Moscow and St. Petersburg. As soon as radio and television appeared, they started being used for the correspondence educational process. In the 1950s in Branches of higher educational institutions and schools, multi-media source centers including teachers audio lectures, different kinds of films such as slide films and movies, were established. In the mid - 1990s in Russian central television, the studio called «Russian Universities» was established. However, soon it stopped its activities for financial reasons[10].

In Russia DE moved to the modern stageof development since 1993. In May 31, 1995 the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, adopted a concept of establishment of distance teaching system.

As is seen from the historical development of DE, its relevance grows with the emergence of new needs and demands of society in various countries of the world. Emergence of new technologies have changed regularly the methods of DE. Today the scientists of the world summarize the DE formation in 3 phases:

At the first phase of DE, training was performed using hand-written and printed sources. In the middle of the 19^th century, educational materials were delivered by railway system and cost-effective public postal services to a large number of students residing in the different areas. In the 1920s after the invention of the radio people started operations in radio courses complementing the printed materials or audience exercises. Beginning from the 1950s TV courses started being shown on television.

The second phase is associated with the formation in 1969 of the Open University in the UK. The establishment of the Open University was of great importance for the development of DE, because this process has led to the acceptance of the untraditional ways for higher education in many countries. Later many universities similar to this university have been established in the world, and the state played a key role in their establishment.

Just from that time, a comprehensive approach for the educational process of DE has been used. A great number of high quality specially designed methodical manuals for the DE have been created. Students started being taught via printed materials, radio and television courses. Moreover, full-time consultations, short courses, correspondence with students on the basis of the educational process were improved, indeed, in the process of formation of such educational model the heavy expenses were required. However, as a result of creation of necessary resources and programs, such expenses was not required to be spent further.

Introduction of information and communication technologies into public life led DE to the third level. New technology forsimultaneous communication has created new opportunities in synchronous (video or audio conferences) and asynchronous (e-mail, Internet, and teleconferences) mode. Despite the fact that, this is characteristic for the previous two-step methods, the use of synchronous and asynchronous methods based on information technology created new opportunities for students and teachers[11].

If we consider in detail the concepts of synchronous and asynchronous methods, the courses based on synchronous methods provide for participation of teachers and students in the training process and at the same time their communication in the online mode. In this case, the transmission of information also includes interactive TV and videoconferences. Asynchronous methods, in contrast to synchronous methods make a big difference in elasticity and give students an opportunity to choose a convenient time to work on the course materials. The use of asynchronous methods provides for using internet, e-mail, video records and ordinary mail[12].

As is dear from the evolutionary stages of formation of DE, it was widely used in the form of correspondence training in the history of the world. However, it should be noted that the “correspondence” and the concept of “DE” are not concepts with the similar meaning. DE differs from correspondence training with a number of unique features:

∗ in correspondence education, knowledge and skills are taught on the basis of short-term direct communication between teachers and students, while distance education is performed through indirect communication between the educand and the educator.

∗ training process of correspondence education is based on the strict schedule: beginning and ending of the academic year, location and duration of the end-of-semester exams, terms of the interim assessment and holding the practical training are taken into consideration;

∗as for DE, it creates opportunity to study not only on the basis of strict compliance with the schedule, but also according to individualized education plan, monitoring and regular consultations of students by teaching staff andadministration of educational institution;

∗ the feature is that to discuss the issues raised in the educational process, DE teachers (tutors) are in constant contact via telecommunications facilities;

∗ DE is able to create an unlimited amount of collective virtual work (seminars, discussions,, and consideration of the projects);

∗ in DE, to avoid or reduce a number of attendance of end-of-semester exams established by the higher education institution, the learning and teaching aids can be provided on paper or in electronic format[13].

Looking at the history of education in a number of countries in the world, it can be seen that at various times during DE training in these three stages, the one or another specific elements having been used. However, the history of education of Uzbekistan distance training system is still not fully studied, and we suggest that new scientific - research works in this area will explain this system in details.

In Uzbekistan, still more serious attention was paid to the educational system in the years of independence. Reforms on country’s educational system have been performed on the basis of the “manpower training national program” and Law “On education” adopted in 1997. Besides, a number of government decrees and decisions about the formation and development of DE in the country have assigned the major tasks[14], in addition, on 26 August 2003 a Distance learning center under the Fund of President of the Republic of Uzbekistan “Istedod” was established.

The Distance learning center is engaged in making the short practical trainings, developing skills and experience of promising, young and talented teachers and scientific researchers from higher education institutions, secondary schools, colleges and lyceums, and organizing videoconferences and seminars. Distance learning center base of the fund aims to use practical training courses for many talented teachers each year, so that they can improve their skills without going abroad[15].

In July 25, 2012 in accordance with Resolution 228 of the Cabinet of

Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On establishment of e-learning center underthe Ministry of Higher and Specialized Secondary Education of the Republic of Uzbekistan for educational institutions” the Center was established. This center is a methodological center of the country for coordination of national network of e-learning for higher education institutions[16].

According to the Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. PP- 1761 dated 28.05.2012 “On measures for training of qualified teaching staff and further improvement of system of provision the specialized secondary and vocational educational institutions with such staff’ No.PP-1761, and the Resolution of Cabinet of Ministers No.242 dated 08.10.2012 “On the measures for advanced training of managing and teaching staff and further improvement of the system of their further training" in the Institute for advanced training and retraining of teaching staff of the specialized secondary and vocational educational institutions, a Department for implementation of modern education science, information technologies and arrangement of distance learning was established. Starting from April 15, 2013 in the Institute for advanced training and re-training of teaching staff of the specialized secondary and vocational educational institutions a distance education system has been launched. Online training courses, and mutual communication technologies are placed in this system[17].

In addition, today in a number of universities the MOODLE distancelearning system is being introduced. Only theuniversity staff including academic teaching staff, Bachelor's and Master's degree students and attending physicians have access to it, because they have their own login and password. They enter this system, and use educational materials and educational textbooks for writing the essays and term papers on their major subject. There is no free online registration in MOODLE site.

The MOODLE has a sufficient information, available for all of the students to prepare for classes freely in places where the Internet is available. This system is protected, and the user has no opportunity to copy information therefrom.

According to the results of a opinion survey regarding young people and education given in the research paper published in the "Public Opinion. Human Rights” journal, the majority of respondents who wish to get education have preferred getting the higher education. A social importance of getting education is increasing from year to year among the young people of our country. For instance, if in the survey performed in 2010 and 2011 was pointed out that one of every three people have expressed the desire to get higher education, in 2013 one of every two people of Uzbekistan have had this wish[18].

2013-2011

Figure 113

Another important aspect for us at this time is that according to a survey of people who wish to get higher education are not only young people at the age of 14-19 (49.6%), but also those aged 20-24 (72.9%) and 25-29 years (67.1%).

As is seen from the results of research, the number of young people who want to increase their level of knowledge and professional qualification is very huge in our country. For this reason, undoubtedly, opening new aspects of knowledge, introducing the positive technologies, which the world has recognized, tested with the world experience, certainly taking into consideration our national mentality and educational system of our country will contribute greatly to the socio-economic development of the society in the future.

“Education is an important part of human socialization and plays a key role in solving the problems of society. Along with the development of education of society, improving the quality of education is another important issue – the problem, which has worried constantly. After all, product of the education is the specialists closely associated with the potential socioeconomic development of the society”[19]. Therefore, mobilizing the training capabilities of the communication technologies, through forming of distance learning system in the country, plays an important role in social life where the education, scientific capability, professional training are intensively developing and changing.

We hope that implementation of this innovation into the education system of Uzbekistan will serve as a unbelievable benefit for the next generation.