The development of information technology affects all spheres of life, including education. Distance learning is becoming increasingly popular as it allows young people to receive higher education even being away from the university. This form has already gained wide popularity and is used by many educational institutions from different countries. In Ukraine, distance learning is at the stage of formation and active implementation. Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) develop effective methods and create their own courses. For the most part, such work is carried out on the basis of the Moodle system.In the view of this, the problems associated with the development of theoretical and practical issues in this direction appear to be the most relevant. At the same time, the system of distance education based on the Moodle platform is created on the basis of social constructive pedagogy, which today attracts the attention of many researchers, teachers of HEIs.The purpose of the article is to explore the benefits of using the Moodle system for learning foreign languages.The execution of this goal requires solving the following tasks:– get acquainted with researches of domestic and foreign scientists regarding distance learning;– define the concept of “distance learning”;– define the concept of “Moodle”;– introduce the development of a distance course of a foreign language for the elementary level.Distance learning is interpreted as an organization of an educational process, in which there is a purposeful direct or indirect interaction between a student (a listener) and a teacher, separated in space or in time, carried out on the basis of modern information technologies, primarily through the use of telecommunications and the Internet. The implementation of distance learning forms the basis for a system of continuous education, in which technical means and informational educational technologies enable not only to change the methodology of developing an ever-increasing amount of knowledge, but also to carry out a detailed control of the assessment and self-assessment of the learning process, to enhance the self-education of a person.The involvement of information technology in the educational process is actively considered by the teachers I. Robert, I. Bulakh, Yu. Bykov, L. Petukhov. The works of E. Polat, A. Khutorsky, R. Sharan are devoted to the problems and peculiarities of the introduction of the distance learning form. T. Koval, E. Smirnova-Trybulsk, M. Izdyliany, G. Yatsenko consider using the elements of students’ distance learning. Methodical principles of teaching a foreign language and translation disciplines using information and communication technologies (ICT), means of distance learning are examined by O. Matsyuk, A. Yankovets, L. Morskaya and others.Moodle is a Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment, distributed free of charge as an Open Source project (GNU GPL license) that allows you to copy, use, and modify the code. The Moodle system is designed to organize and manage learning in a networked environment using ICT. It is reliable in operation, easy to use and administrate, provides information security and its transfer from a teacher to a student, makes assessment of students’ achievements, is compatible with standard software.This academic year one distance course of a foreign language for the elementary level has been developed by the department of foreign languages number 704 of the National Aerospace University «Kharkiv Aviation Institute». Each teacher of the department has studied the principles of work in the system of Moodle and created their own element of the distance course for teaching a foreign language for elementary level students of both full-time and part-time study. Further work is aimed at developing distance courses for higher levels of foreign language learning.
Contemporary approaches to informatization of educational process in higher education in Ukraine
