Organization of Education Using Modern Distance Learning Technologies in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic (on the example of Russian law schools)

Abstract

The purpose of the article was to find the key problems of transferring the educational process into a distance form, and options for their solution. The changes that have taken place in the world over the past year have posed new challenges for society to which it should have been able to react. The sphere of education found itself in a rather difficult situation. It had to be reorganized in a short time and began to function in a remote communication mode. The author's methodology was based on an empirical study (a survey of teachers and students) to determine the degree of their readiness for a global transition to distance learning. Moreover, sociological, systemic analysis and synthesis scientific methods were used. During the study, the authors have concluded that neither teachers nor trainees were ready for the transformation that took place in the field of education. The problems faced by the participants in the educational process are both technical and psychological. In the technical sphere, there was an acute shortage of equipment used by trainees in the educational process. In addition, the lack of Internet traffic provided made it difficult to exchange information between participants in the educational process.In the psychological sphere, the difficulties have boiled down to the fact that in the new environment the role and degree of responsibility of trainees have increased significantly, which was highly negatively assessed by them. Teachers of the older age group have turned out to be practically unprepared for mastering new methods using technical teaching means. The learning process was mainly reduced to self-preparation of students, during which they were offered to read lecture materials, self-test, independent problem solving and other tasks. At the same time, the interaction between a teacher and trainees was minimized. Some options for the implementation of techniques were proposed in the article. They will help in the future to grade a number of problems, increase the degree of interaction between the teacher and students, making remote learning more convenient and comfortable for many.