Online Educational Platforms: Classification and Criteria for Assessing

Abstract

Purpose of research. Online platforms are being used as digital solutions in the system of higher education. They are developed by order of not only the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation as well as by commercial structures. The market of educational digital products is oversaturated with various services. It is quite difficult for representatives of the education system to navigate in all their diversity. The interest of researchers is mainly focused on the analysis of online courses and other platform solutions are not considered. The choice of IT solution affects both the educational environment and learning models. Therefore, consideration of online platforms in the context of their functional purpose is an urgent problem, which is the reason for the interest in finding optimal means for evaluating online platforms. The purpose of this study is to develop criteria for evaluating educational online platforms that solve didactic tasks.Materials and methods. The study was conducted over the past five years in three phases and using two types of activities. The first stage: included the collection of data - the results of the subjective perception of web services by participants in advanced training courses. The second stage: we brainstormed a redundant set of evaluation parameters. In parallel, a search was made for various approaches to evaluating platform solutions. The analysis of empirical data from the results of questioning the subjects of education made it possible to identify the main problem of the study, and the bibliographic search method made it possible to identify the existing criteria for evaluating online courses. At the final stage, the systematization and structuring of the obtained results was carried out. The methods used made it possible to move from subjective assessments to objective characteristics of online educational platforms.Results. The article discusses approaches to evaluating online platforms from the standpoint of their effective use in the educational process. The variety of available and created online resources suggests the need to develop skills in evaluating virtual educational environments, which requires the development of evaluation criteria and the necessary quantitative indicators. The authors analyzed the main approaches to the classification of educational platforms and proposed their own typology according to the ways of interaction between participants in the educational process. The paper presents the criteria for evaluating platform solutions and makes their grouping according to three bases: on technical, functional, and didactic possibilities. The formulation of the criteria makes it possible to use indicators of the presence or absence of a certain quality of platforms, which makes it possible to reduce the subjectivity of their evaluation.Conclusion. The digital transformation of the educational space implies the possibility of embedding various resources into the educational process: gadgets, web development and online platforms. The paper proposes a classification of online platforms by types of interaction, which made it possible to distinguish the criteria for their assessment from the solved didactic problems. The two-stage platform evaluation model makes it possible to qualitatively evaluate the possibilities of its use and make a choice in favor of one or another service when you get acquainted with the resource.