Basic educational content development for distanse learning: theory and practice

With the increase in implanting the information and computing technologies into learning during 1990-2020s, it has become obvious that e-learning is going to become both a global tendency and a crucial change in the quality, form and methodology of education. The pandemic of COVID 19 with its massive global shift to distance learning brought to focus the need to revise the strategies and policies in education in general and the critical importance for appropriate digital training for university teachers in particular to boost their readiness, preparedness and ability to adapt to the changing conditions of the educational environment. The study shows that the teacher’s skills to create high-quality basic content for distance learning are crucial for successful teaching online. The plethora of conditions, criteria and factors affecting the quality of educational content for effective online teaching is examined. The article details the stages and principles of designing the basic content of an e-learning course. Using text editors and information visualization tools as examples the authors propose practical recommendations for content development. The study brings to focus some key concepts of e-learning methodology. The authors imply that to create quality content, a teacher needs knowledge and skills in pedagogical design, computing, time management and online communication. The proposed principles for the basic educational content development and criteria suggested have and educators involved in e-courses development, as well as to a wide range of users.