Distance education — modern realities and development prospects
Researched is the problem of distance education in Russia in the context of the coronavirus pandemic that spread throughout the world in 2020. It describes and analyzes results of survey in the form of questionnaire of both Students and Lectors of Higher Educational institutions in several provincial cities of Russia. As a result of the study it was revealed that about 70% of students and more than 90% of Lectors believe, that the educational process in higher education is inappropriate to completely transfer online. Lectors noted that optimal form of organizing the educational process is combination of online and offline formats. The survey in the form of questionnaire made it possible to assess strengths and weaknesses of organization and content ofdistance education in Russian Universities, difficulties and problems that have arisen among Lectors and Students, and prospects for development of the phenomenon under study. First of all, it is necessary to note insufficient readiness of both Lectors and Students to switch to distance mode. Many organizational difficulties were associated with unstable operation of electronic educational environment, educational portals, information and communication networks, as well as with failures in the Internet. Research has shown that these issues need to be addressed over the long term. Both Students and Lectors recognize that distance learning is a good addition to existing traditional educational system, and some forms of educational work can be left online.