Abstract:

Digitalization has covered all areas of our lives, including education, changing it in a fundamental way. National digital education platforms allow a variety of distance courses to study, the same opportunities provided by educational platforms of individual universities, including UrFU. The purpose of this article was to conduct an evaluation and comparative characterization of the distance form of higher education on the example of a philosophy course for bachelors in Ural Federal University in terms of its flexibility and openness. The model by D. Orr et al. was the basis of the research, using as the main criteria: 1) delivery; 2) content; and 3) recognition of learning outcomes. The data obtained allow us to conclude about a sufficiently high level of openness of distance education (65%), not a sufficiently high level of its flexibility (20%). There is also no doubt that distance learning is very convenient for students, which was noted by 75% of respondents, while 16% of respondents said that communication with a teacher is preferable. We believe that distance courses in humanitarian subjects for students of technical specialties should be converted into a blended form, which will allow students to create the soft-skills so necessary for them, such as creativity, sociability, communication, teamwork, that are in demand on the labor market of Industry 4.0.