The use of e-learning to train specialists in the field of service and tourism

Problem and purpose. E-learning is one of the most promising modern technologies. Electronic educational resources (EER) and mass open online courses (MOOC) have great potential for professional training programs, including in the field of service and tourism. To date, there is a contradiction between the rapid pace of informatization of education and the classical educational paradigm, which is not ready for rapid changes. Another contradiction is the abundance of available English-language Internet resources, including MOOC, in all subject areas, including service and tourism, and insufficiently formed foreign-language communicative competence among Russian-speaking learners to understand teaching materials and mastering disciplines. The purpose of the article is to analyze the possibilities of e-learning in the field of service and tourism and to justify the need to create an electronic course that fosters the formation of a foreign-language communicative competence necessary for professional activities in the service and tourism industry. The research methodology consists of the analysis of normative and legal documents in the field of higher education, research works of domestic and foreign scientists and a qualitative and quantitative analysis of educational Internet resources in the field of service and tourism. Results. The analysis of electronic courses of the largest foreign and domestic MOOC platforms offering training in the field of service and tourism showed an extremely low share of courses in Russian with an inconvenient training schedule that does not satisfy the needs of students, and a huge number of courses in English available in self-paced mode (without fixed time frames). The Hospitality, Customer Service and Tourism e-course was created with the goal of eliminating this gap. The goal of the course is to form professionally significant personal qualities through the ability to conduct business communication in the field of hospitality, service and tourism in oral and written forms in English. Conclusion. The success of e-learning is largely dependent on the ability to meet educational needs and on the ability to maximize the potential of the network. The advantage of the Hospitality, Customer Service and Tourism course is that it enables Russian-speaking students to make the fullest use of English-language electronic educational resources, including MOOC, to acquire professional competences in the field of service and tourism. This is how one of the tasks of innovative socio-oriented development, the formation of the social sphere and human capital is solved.