Methodical aspects of group work organization of the trainees in the professional development programs in long distance format

Abstract

In Russia and abroad the teamwork gained popularity in the labor market as a form of collective interaction between multiprofessional groups of specialists in implementing business projects, carrying out research and development projects, designing technological solutions and creating innovative products. At the same time, in the educational practice, especially when using distant educational technologies, the command method of instruction is quite rare. The reason for this is that the teamwork in the implementation of educational programs requires fixating individual educational outcomes of each trainee, their contribution to the performance of the group task. It complicates the organization of the educational process. As the result, educational organizations do not often use this educational form because of the complexity of its application in the conduct of intermediate and final attestation. Research goal. search and validation of a problem solution that can be formulated as a contradiction between the need to perform group homework assignments in distant learning and the necessity to fix the individual educational results of each trainee for the purpose of intermediate and final attestation. The authors of the article offer basic methodological principles that allow finding the balance in-between the requirements of legislation and preserving the team approach in the process of group work of trainees. Materials and methods. The initial materials of the research are an overview of existing publications on the organization of teamwork of trainees is used, including the implementation of training in a long distance format, the legislation of the Russian Federation regarding interim and final certification of trainees, as well as practical experience in implementing training programs, based on ANO “E-learning for Nanoindustry (“eNano”)”. Based on these materials, the authors offer basic methodological principles, obtained empirically and subject to validation in the process of research. The validation of the proposed principles was carried out using the example of an advanced training program “Design and Development of Electronic Training Courses”, implemented by ANO “eNano” by an expert survey, and based on a statistically significant sample. Results. As the result of research, the authors obtained confirmation of the effectiveness of the proposed methodological principles, using the expert survey method by questioning 35 participants who had completed the above-mentioned advanced training program in a completely distant format. This total set was formed from three flows, within which the trainees were divided into groups of 3–4 people and themselves moderated the roles within the subgroups when performing group (team) assignments. Particular value in this sample is that all trainees have higher educational level and all they are employees and lecturers of five Russian universities (Samara State University, Perm National Research Polytechnic University, P.G.Demidov Yaroslavl State University, Kazan National Research Technological University, National University of Science and Technology, Moscow), among them – 6 professors, doctors of sciences, 18 associate professors, candidates of sciences, 2 deans, 2 heads of departments, 4 directors of distance learning centers. Conclusion. The authors hope to continue this research, extending it to professional retraining programs and masters’ programs in the full long distance format.