Pilot study results of digital didactic tools for international educational smart environment

Statement of the problem. The intensive development of international educational cooperation with Russiafriendly countries in the Asia-Pacific region is accompanied by active implementation of digital technologies in the educational process. Modern educational platforms provide extensive opportunities for creating personalized learning pathways based on the principles of flexibility, adaptability, variability, and technological advancement. However, the effectiveness of such systems largely depends on accounting for culture-specific features of information perception by representatives of different countries. Existing research predominantly focuses on technological aspects of platforms, paying insufficient attention to instructional design issues of culturally adaptive content. This necessitates the identification and specification of characteristics of digital didactic tools for international educational smart environments, as well as their practical piloting in teaching students from various countries. The purpose of the article is to present the results of piloting digital didactic tools for implementing blended and online learning in conditions of flexible, adaptive, variable, and sophisticated international educational platform as a smart environment, using the example of foreign students’ language training process. Methodology (materials and methods). The study is based on the ideas of system-activity and person-oriented approaches, ensuring personalization of the educational process and accounting for cognitive and cultural characteristics of learners. The pilot study was conducted in blended learning formats using interactive equipment and in fully remote mode on the basis of an international educational platform with participation of students from Indonesia and China. The foundation of didactic tools consisted of standardized packages with multimodal presentation of thematic content, including visual, audio, and textual components with adaptive elements. Methods of platform educational analytics analysis, pedagogical observation, and participant surveys were applied. Research results. The study identified five key characteristics of effective instructional design of digital didactic tools: multimodality of information presentation, cultural adaptability of content, interactivity of tasks, personalized feedback, and flexibility of educational pathways. Significant intercultural differences in patterns of interaction with educational content between Chinese and Indonesian students were revealed. The developed tools demonstrated high effectiveness in material mastery and positive satisfaction ratings from learners, with blended learning format proving most effective. The necessity of a differentiated approach to material presentation modality for different cultural groups was confirmed, while gamified interactive elements showed universal applicability regardless of learners’ cultural background. Conclusion. The conducted pilot study confirmed the effectiveness of the developed digital didactic tools for implementing blended and online learning in conditions of flexible, adaptive, variable, and sophisticated international educational platform as a smart environment, using the example of foreign students’ language preparation process. The identified characteristics of instructional design and established intercultural differences in educational content mastery create a scientific-methodological foundation for designing culturally adaptive digital resources. The practical significance of the research lies in creating a ready-to-use educational solution for language preparation of students from Asia-Pacific countries. The obtained results can be scaled to other subject areas and used in developing digital educational tools for promoting Russian language and culture in the international educational space.