Study of student preferences for distance learning

and pair discussions, dramatization, telling of stories, choral reading, recitation, reports are natural for synchronic studying. They are necessary for all students to develop their abilities. Tie activities in this group demand a lot of preparation and participation from a teacher but there is still something more that the teacher can do to help individuals better develop there oral English. This is asynchronous teaching [8]. Tie interaction between students and with the teacher is spontaneous. Video lectures, readings, email, pedagogical blogs, personal assignments and pair work or collaborative tasks can be included. Lectures can be recorded or delayed.

Asynchronous communication allows information to be exchanged with a time lag [3]. Students’ learning in this case is more flexible and more independent. They can work in session halls, in Moodle or can complete the tasks on their own schedule and there is an opportunity of delayed responses. They reduce shyness and fear of a teacher due to the distant mode. Asynchronous e-learning can be challenging and only a carefully designed strategies can keep students engaged and interested in this sort of learning environment. In this case it can facilitate confidence, participation, problem solving, analytical and higher order thinking skills. Motivation matters here, without it students can put off their weekly tasks and lag behind the group.

The main factor that matters is what would be considered as organizing factor of education in the form of remote teaching - creation of e-courses, studying methodical and didactic bases of distance teaching, training educators, tutors, coordinators, administrators of distance learning programs.

It must be mentioned that that some theoretical requirements, experimental implementations, the methodological and scientific - investigative works have already been worked out. Among them are investigations of O.N. Altukhova, I.I. Baranova, M. Daugiamas, B. Holmberg, M. Kostina,

M.J. Kubiak, E.S. Polat, P. Taylor, K. Swan. They give the basis to the statement that distance learning might be considered as a “specific form of pedagogical technology” [4].

The use of digital information resources in teaching is becoming the most important feature of optimization of the educational process at modern universities. For the organization of distance learning, various technological platforms, information and educational environments, various software resources and telecommunication types can be used. Depending on the chosen platform of distance learning one can be in a continuous contact with students from the virtual class, imitating all kinds of direct teaching, but with the use of specific forms, means and technology [4].

A Set of Practical Lessons on Distance Learning (SPLD) was aimed to design virtual (online-based) students’ language involvement for three months. After that a web-based questionnaire was developed to analyze its

ИССЛЕДОВАНИЕ ПРЕДПОЧТЕНИЙ СТУДЕНТОВ В ОТНОШЕНИИ ДИСТАНЦИОННОГО ОБУЧЕНИЯ effect on students’ preferences of online education.

Tie introductory part of the study included the questions on students’ general opinion concerning remote studying: if it was much/a little harder/easier than they expected, or it was as they imagined it would be. It concerned their predictions about the close reality connected with the pandemic of COVID. Tie question “How do you feel about using digital content for English”? was asked to reveal their attitude towards distance learning.

Tie next part of the study was based on the questions to explain students’ concerns. For example:

Which of these, if any, described your feelings.

• Anxious/ concerned about online English learning.

• Being tired of online/ remote learning.

• Feeling of isolation/ no contact with groupmates.

• I preferred/ liked studying online.

• I don’t have any feelings.

• •    Excited to come back to class.

Tie web-based questionnaire was also designed to collect information about students’ perceptions, preferences and actual use of the SPLD after they completed all units:

From these language activities, what did you like most of all, if any:

• •    Communication with a teacher.

• •    Collaboration with students.

• •    Audio tasks.

• •    Video films.

• •    Grammar tests.

• •    Lesson presentations.

• •    None of these.

Tie questionnaire also included issues concerning students’ predictions: • Tiinking ahead of three years from now, how do you think learning will be different?

• • Paper books will be thinner.

• New digital tools and resources will be more common.

• Paper books will disappear completely.

• Teachers will use class for interaction, individual practice will be completed in platforms.

• Remote/distant learning will be more common.

And finally, the question was asked about the problems or obstacles related to English learning:

What obstacles, if any, have you faced related to English learning?

• No progress.

• Bad equipment (internet connection, devises, etc.).

• Anxiety among a teacher and students.

• •    Not enough digital content.

• •    None of these.

Tie questionnaire was mainly applied to compare students’ preference outcomes after the use of the distance learning platform. Tiere are statistically significant mean differences in their answers.

Data were collected from 130 second-year students of different non language faculties who participated in online teacher-constructed questionnaire after a 12-week study. Quantitative and qualitative data in response to an end-of-course questionnaire were analyzed. Several major findings were obtained and compared.

First, interestingly, more participants imagined and supported online study and they felt positive towards it (70 per cent). 15 percent of the responders answered it was a little harder than they expected. For 5 percent of the respondents studying online was either much harder or much easier respectively. In general, most of them felt positive or neutral or interested about using digital content for English and nobody had negative feelings.

Second, data with regard to perceived experience supported the potential of distance learning for providing educational opportunities. It has been mostly fine for 50 percent of the subjects, effortless - for 5 percent, there have been ups and downs for 40 percent, it has been a real challenge for 4 percent and definitely bad for 1 percent of the responders.

Tiird, responses allowed the teacher to attend to areas pinpointed by the respondents but initially ignored by them, thus making the diversity of getting knowledge possible. Students liked video and lesson presentations three times more than online tests. And two next they felt positive were collaboration with groupmates and audio activities. Group work continuous to prevail with learners of a foreign language to the same extent as it was with face-to face classes. An analysis of the educational psychology literature shows that many scientific studies on group learning have collectively proven its positive role on the effectivity of language acquisition. Tie works of the outstanding Soviet psychologist Vygotsky can be considered the theoretical basis for group learning. In his works he emphasizes the special role of social interaction in the process of intellectual development [2]. Similarly, having studied and analysed the methodological literature on the use of group work in foreign language online lessons, we can confidently say that the group form of work fully meets the distance specifics and expectations of students.

Fourth, feeling of isolation (no direct contact with groupmates) and being tired of remote learning are the two determining factors affecting the students’ outcome. It indicates that despite the positive perceptions stated by the communicators, the communication process should not be limited to the use of distant technologies, as their role in foreign language teaching is auxiliary and variable. In our opinion, it indicates the necessity of swapping modes of studying, making it more flexible and not using it continuously.

Fifth, in students’ insight into the future, a statistically significant correlation between their using new digital tools and resources and more frequent distance learning was confirmed. 60 % of respondents believe that in the near future distance education will be mainstream, digital resources and here and now will be more widespread. 15% believe that teachers will use the classroom as an auxiliary element for interaction, individual practice will take place on platforms. This is quite understandable, because often textbooks do not correspond to modern learning technologies or are outdated, do not ensure the formation of skills and the development of skills of different types of speech activity. Online technologies are more flexible and more up-to-date, reflecting the needs of different learners. As the experiment shows, the online language learning environment can be implemented on the basis of various platforms, which professionally help to create training courses, assignments of almost any type. All the necessary materials for both distance and independent work of students can be placed on the online platforms. And the potential of e-learning materials is enormous and makes it possible to successfully solve various didactic tasks.

Finally, actual online obstacles varied greatly among participants, from the majority indicating ‘bad equipment’ (60 %) to anxiety among a teacher and a student (10 percent) during online sessions and to ‘no progress’ (9 %). Although communication takes place with a very real interlocutor, it has become virtual, thus differing from face-to-face communication. Tie communicants are separated by distance sometimes with not very good internet connection and do not have the opportunity to observe and perceive each other’s actions; contact is limited and metered, obviously resulting in a certain tension and discomfort for the students.

Conclusion. Tie development of the integration of information and distance technology services is an inevitable trend for future develop- ment of education. Tie construction of a Set of Practical Lessons on Distance Learning has significance in consolidating interdisciplinary technology to create an alliance between a language and information technology. Tie results after the use of the distance online-guiding platform indicated learning shifts and effectiveness. Most students became more aware of the meaning and necessity of remote learning.

It was quite important to evaluate the results of the study. Has the online education been successful? If it has been, how big is the impact? Do the different variables affect this impact? What should we consider in the next coming online education practices? Tiese questions have all motivated us to carry out this study. We have conducted a comprehensive study that tries to provide a discussion on how to develop efficient online programs for educators by reviewing the related study on online education, presenting the effect size and revealing the effect of diverse learning variables on the general impact.

We recognize that adopting the online learning environment is not just a technical issue, it is a pedagogical and instructive challenge as well. Tierefore, the percentage with anxiety indicates that extensive preparation of teaching materials, curriculum, and assessment is crucial in online education. Technology (good internet connection) is the delivery tool and provides close cross-collaboration between a teacher, content and learners.

Ultimately, data analyses revealed that three factors were significantly related to student perceptions—tech- nical clarity and diversity of online activities in course design, contact with and feedback from course instructors, and active and guided distance cooperation with other group-mates. An explanation for these findings may center on the importance of creating new opportunities for proper interaction in online learning environment. We suppose that online learning environment can be designed to reflect the social nature of learning. We suggest that teaching presence, defined as the core role of the online instructor, is among the most promising mechanisms for developing online learning community [5]. Tie directed facilitation on the part of students’ course instructors is particularly important in encouraging and shaping collaborative activity online— synchronous and asynchronous- presentations, chat discussions and pair collaboration makes the outcome of students’ preferences more diverse. So, the conclusion is obvious: the use of multimedia presentations of audio and video materials, group work and collaboration, lack of anxiety and renewed instructor’s guidance, intelligent testing systems generate interest in distance education. Besides, the study showed that the main problem affecting students’ satisfaction with the quality of the educational process is the lack of internet connection or its malfunctioning. Tie combination of all the factors revealed in the questionnaire allows to declare great potential of distance education in the future. Moreover, accessibility, reasonable price, informativeness, individual approach are all advantages of distance learning as well.