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Organization of distance learning. Own business: organization of a distance education system Organization of distance learning at a university from scratch

Russian companies have long recognized that distance learning brings tangible results and saves resources. Now managers and specialists involved in training and development of personnel are most interested in how to implement the eLearning system at minimal cost and in the shortest possible time. Yulia Shuvalova, Development Director of iSpring, shares her professional recommendations.

Russian business no longer needs to prove the advantages of eLearning: the remote educational format allows companies to effectively solve many business problems:

Cover training for an unlimited number of employees, even from geographically remote areas.
Maintain up-to-date knowledge of the company's products and services.
Save money on organizing training and trips to branches.
Provide continuous training for employees.
Promptly carry out slices of knowledge.

For employees, distance learning has its advantages:

Possibility to study at any time.
Ability to study anywhere: courses and tests can be taken from your mobile devices.
Choice of individual learning pace.
The possibility of self-development, broadening horizons.
It's interesting, modern and exciting.

It doesn’t matter if your company is large or small, you can quickly implement distance learning if you answer three questions:

1) what tools to choose?

2) what resources of the company need to be involved?

3) how to measure efficiency?

Choosing a learning tool

The launch of eLearning in any company is primarily associated with the choice of a distance learning system (LMS). This is a virtual room where you can train and test the knowledge of employees, no matter where they are.

When choosing a distance learning system, determine: it will be a finished product "in a box" (installation on the company's server is required) or a cloud solution (allows you to deploy LMS on a remote service).

What is the main difference?

By buying a "boxed" program, you are actually blindly implementing a system that your employees will be forced to use for a very long time. And if for some reason it turns out to be inconvenient, the company is unlikely to agree to change it: after all, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of rubles, have been invested in the purchase. You will have to purchase the system taking into account the number of employees you plan to train. In addition, a “stationary” LMS requires significant technical capabilities, and its maintenance requires the help of IT specialists.

For quick implementation of LMS, it is better to use cloud technologies. They save time and budget and do not require the involvement of technical specialists for deployment and management. There are many worthy cloud LMSs on the Russian market: iSpring Online, Competentum, WebTutor, Mirapolis and others.

As a rule, such systems have a trial period and a flexible payment system. You will be able to test the LMS on a group of employees, and then extend this experience to other departments.

What should any SDO be able to do?

Provide a full-fledged learning process by analogy with full-time. Everything is like at school, only remotely.

1) provide access to the virtual classroom for the student and the teacher;

2) organize students into groups according to common characteristics (for example, sales department employees, development department employees);

3) invite users to training, assign training courses and tests to an employee or group of employees;

4) upload materials of any format (lectures, presentations, videos, documents, graphics);

5) maintain distance learning standards in which you develop courses (AICC, SCORM, xAPI, BlackBoard);

6) ensure regular monitoring of the learning process through reports;

7) conduct testing with closed and open questions.

But this is only the upper layer of tasks that the LMS solves. Modern systems provide much more opportunities, the main thing is to correctly identify the selection criteria:

Will the system allow organizing mobile learning on tablets, smartphones?
Will the courses be available when there is no internet connection?
Is it possible to customize individual trajectory training for an employee or group?
Does the LMS contain the required types of reports?
Does it allow webinars?

It is best to make a wish list and check if the LMS matches it. Include in your checklist only the functionality that is really needed to solve your learning tasks.

Checklist example

Required number of users

from 100 to 150 people

Need for service by technicians

not required

Differentiation of user roles

administrators, teachers, students

Ability to divide users into groups

Access to Personal Area student

online

Supported media formats

DOC, PDF, MP3, MP4, XLS, SCORM 2004

Ability to take courses on mobile devices

Possibility to study in the absence of the Internet

Possibility of holding webinars

Possibility to customize individual program for each student

Opportunity feedback with a teacher

online and offline

Reports

on the progress of each student / group of students
about courses viewed by the student about tests taken
about attended webinars

Possibility to download the report in excel, pdf format

Having a certificate upon completion of training

Availability of technical support from the supplier

Remember: if you wind up a list of hundreds of items, you most likely will not find a suitable LMS provider. And if you find it, then just waste the company's money, because you are unlikely to use all the functionality. For example, some companies ask for a large number of reports, which are then never opened.

What else?

In addition to the distance learning system itself, you will need a tool for developing electronic lectures, tests and other educational materials.

There are no universal tools, or rather, there are no universal learning rules that could be guided by. Each business has its own characteristics, so successful companies usually use two or three tools to develop courses.

There are not many providers of such solutions on the domestic market (the most famous are iSpring Suite and CourseLab). Among foreign analogues, Articulate is sometimes chosen, but it is suitable for companies where the budget is not limited. In addition, Articulate technical support is located abroad and is not provided in Russian. This significantly complicates the prompt resolution of emerging issues.

If the task is to implement distance learning quickly and at minimal cost, choose simple tools for a reasonable price. They do not require the involvement of technical experts, they have an intuitive interface, and your HR specialists will be able to create electronic courses on their own.

It's even easier when a set of modules is integrated with popular applications that every employee knows, such as the Microsoft Office suite.

It happens that a company has already developed a large number of educational materials ^ they just need to be “translated” into an electronic format and provided to employees with access.

A big plus is the ability to test the functionality for free before buying. Then you will know for sure that you are purchasing a quality tool that meets your expectations.

Additionally, it is worth finding out if training is provided from the developer, instructions or video tutorials for a quick introduction to the software product.

How to estimate labor costs

Evaluation of labor costs depends on the goals of training and is directly related to the choice of implementation tools, which were discussed above. If the product is complex, then it will take more time and resources to work with it.

You must be clear about the distance learning outcome you want to achieve. The more specific the goal is formulated, the easier it will be to go to it. For example : by September 1, 80 employees of the production department in 3 branches must complete a course on labor protection.

To measure effort, it's important to understand who will be creating and maintaining the learning materials, as well as the number of courses you plan to create. If you choose a simple option, your employees will cope with it, which means that the company will save time and money.

Quick scenario (company employees involved)

1) HR specialists think over the content of the course, the form of presentation (presentation, video lecture, game, interactive simulator, etc.), select materials (text, audio, video, images).

2) The developer (this may be the same HR specialist) arranges the content into an electronic course.

3) The system administrator uploads the course to the LMS, assigns courses, and then collects training statistics.

Pros of this scenario:

Your employees will be able to share their experience with the tool,

The launch of eLearning does not depend on external contractors.

Long script (involving an external development team).

1) Setting a task for an external developer, immersing him in the context of the situation.

2) Coordination of terms and conclusion of contracts.

3) Collection and transfer of materials, discussion of the submission form, course structure.

4) Course development.

5) Coordination, editing.

In this case, the process of launching eLearning can take a year or more.

If there are no specialized IT specialists in the company’s staff, you will have to contact external developers every time to update the courses, which means again wasting time and money.

How to measure the effectiveness of the eLearning system

Even before the launch of distance learning, answer the question, how accessible and useful was the e-learning course?

The fact is that distance learning has its own specifics. Employees can take courses at any convenient time and in any place. At this moment, the teacher may not be in touch, it will not be possible to clarify the details. Therefore, the educational material should be understandable, structured, visual and, most importantly, close to practice.

Give employees practical knowledge: how to behave in a situation with a dissatisfied client, what you need to know in order to competently answer a buyer’s question, etc.

As practice shows, to monitor training, you need to know only two things: how each individual employee learns, which courses (topics) are of the greatest and least interest.

After training, evaluate the effectiveness in a comprehensive way:

Collect employee feedback.
Compare the achievements of those who study remotely and in person.
Regularly conduct knowledge cuts.
Estimate the percentage of successful completion of training relative to the total number of those who completed the course.
Track how the successes of employees are changing, whether performance indicators are improving (the number of closed deals, completed projects, etc.).

In fact, the formula for success is simple: convenient and high-quality development tools, an adequate assessment of the goals and learning outcomes, the availability minimum budget and resources to get started. The competition is growing and the company whose staff has up-to-date knowledge and constantly develops will win. Start implementing the eLearning system and soon you will be able to appreciate the first fruits of distance learning.

Yulia Shuvalova, director of development of the companyiSpring

(eLearning) in a company, like launching a rocket, requires investment, careful design, teamwork, and more.
In this article, together with experts from the field of eLearning, we will analyze the entire cycle of launching distance learning and tell you step by step how to bring eLearning into orbit.

Step 1. Determine the goals of launching distance learning

A rocket is sent into space for various reasons: to explore a new planet, put a satellite into orbit, or, for example, deliver a payload to astronauts. There is always a purpose. It is the same with distance learning - there is no point in introducing it simply because it is fashionable.

If you have opened this article, then you already know why your company needs online training. If not, a little advice: the goal is easier to find by pushing off from the “pain point”. What problem do you hope to solve with eLearning?

For example, Skyeng needed to quickly train 120 new employees to teach English online and work on the Vimbox platform. Now, with the help of eLearning, the company trains 200 professionals per month.

Permenergosbyt wanted to develop staff on the job and quickly conduct testing. With the help of eLearning, the company automated the certification system in six months and took control of knowledge in 74 branches of the Perm Territory.
→

What do you want to achieve? The more specific the goal is, the easier it is to hit the bull's-eye.

MW-LIGHT manufactures and distributes decorative lighting throughout the world. The range of 300 collections, each - from 10 to 100 models. At the same time, the assortment is updated by 35% per year. It was difficult for sellers to remember the features of each model. Sometimes the sale failed simply because the employee could not competently tell about the new product.

MW-LIGHT set a goal: to increase customer loyalty in six months by training salespeople on the company's products. Now there are e-courses for employees for each collection. Result: the number of grateful buyers doubled, as did the number of successful transactions.

Distance Learning Project Manager MW-LIGHT

“Think ahead about how you measure the success of eLearning. The number of employees trained and the number of tests passed is only the basis of the overall performance picture. You can "pump" hundreds and thousands - there is little sense. You need to look at the business result.

For example: employees instantly learn about product innovations, after training managers, additional sales have doubled, the cost of training personnel in the regions has been halved (no more need to pay travel coaches, pay for plane tickets and hotel rooms), and so on.

Summary of step 1: you know the purpose of distance learning and key indicators against which you will measure the success of the project.

Step 2. Choose tools for distance learning

How are spaceships arranged? Experienced rocket scientists will answer something like this: “Each rocket has a different design. It all depends on the task." For example, the American "Shuttle" includes launch boosters, a fuel tank and an orbital ship. This is enough to reach low Earth orbit. But you won’t get to Mars - other components will be required.

The eLearning arsenal also directly depends on the goals. As a rule, companies use one of three types of tools or the whole set at once for distance learning:

webinars;
distance learning system;
e-learning editor.

Let's take a look at each of them in detail.

Webinars

This is a face-to-face seminar in an online format: you give a lecture to employees from several branches at once, only at the same time you sit at a computer in the company's central office, in a cafe or at home in a comfortable chair and soft slippers.

A webinar is similar to a Skype conversation: you can speak into a microphone, write to a chat, show a desktop on a PC or a presentation. The lecture can be immediately recorded on video and sent to employees so that they can refresh their knowledge later.

Webinars in business are usually used when they want to reduce costs and the number of face-to-face trainings. For example, the insurance company "Centras Insurance" regularly trains heads of sales departments and salespeople from 17 branches of Kazakhstan through webinars. For the first group, a program was developed for the selection and adaptation of personnel, for the second - a course on sales techniques. The company saved on travel, hotel rooms and travel expenses for coaches who previously traveled to the regions. At the same time, the quality of education was not affected.

Head of Personnel Development Department, JSC "Insurance Company "Centras Insurance"

“When choosing a webinar platform, find out how common technical failures are. There is nothing worse than a connection cut off at the key moment of a lecture.

It is desirable that the platform supports testing, polls and interactive: the ability to “raise your hand”, emoticons to indicate mood, etc. All this is good for learning. Listeners are not tempted to switch browser tabs and check social media.

An important point: before renting a platform, make sure that the branches have a good Internet connection. Otherwise, you will waste your money - none of the employees will be able to get in touch with you.

Distance Learning System (LMS)

LMS is a virtual school where you can train staff from anywhere in the world: assign courses, tests, track progress and analyze results.

In the distance learning system, you can:

Create a knowledge base. Store e-courses, tests, videos and other educational content in one place, not on hundreds of CDs and flash drives. At any convenient time, employees can go to the portal and repeat the material covered.
Pump staff at a distance. In a few clicks, assign a course to a specific employee, company department or branch.
Control the quality of education. For each material in the LMS, you can collect detailed statistics. You will always know how the material was learned and tests passed, and you will be able to evaluate the progress of employees.
Keep in touch with students. An internal chat or forum is a place where employees can exchange ideas, write about what material turned out to be useful, what to improve, on what other topics e-courses are useful.

“When choosing a distance learning system, decide on the type: LMS with installation on a company server or a cloud solution.

In the first case, you are actually blindly implementing a system into the company's server that your employees will be forced to use for a very long time. And if for some reason it turns out to be inconvenient, the company is unlikely to agree to change it: after all, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of rubles, have been invested in the purchase. You will have to purchase the system taking into account the number of employees you plan to train. In addition, it is difficult to maintain a "stationary" LMS - the help of IT specialists is needed. Launch time: 3-4 months.

For quick implementation of LMS, it is better to use cloud technologies. They do not require installation on the server, you only need access to the Internet. You can start training immediately after registration. At the same time, the system is often not inferior in functionality to the "stationary" LMS, and it can be managed by one person - an HR specialist or an employee of the training department. IT skills are not required. Launch time: 1-2 days.
Test the demo version of the cloud-based LMS →

Course editor

In addition to the distance learning system, you will need a tool for creating electronic courses, tests and interactive simulators.
In the editor, you can create slides with text and graphics, add animation, narration, record video. Depending on the instrument, the possibilities may be very different.

You don't have to be a programmer or designer to create an online course - all you need to know is PowerPoint. For example, this course is made from a simple presentation:

The course was created in iSpring Suite. How it works: After you install the Suite on your computer, a separate tab will appear in PowerPoint.

Come in, add pictures, animation, audio, video, tests to the presentation - the course is ready. Now it can be uploaded to LMS and assigned to staff.

Employees will be able to study the material at any time and from any device: computer, tablet, smartphone.

Training Specialist Inventive Retail Group

“With iSpring, our company releases three courses per week for re:Store, Samsung, Sony Centre, LEGO, Nike, Street Beat, Rookie, UNOde50 and kid rocks.

Designing e-training in iSpring is as easy as putting together a presentation. Big plus: content library. You don’t need to draw up a TOR for a designer or rummage through photo stocks. iSpring offers hundreds ready-made templates, backgrounds, characters, pictures. You simply select content from ready-made materials, modify it to suit the company’s tasks, and create an electronic training.

In just six months, our company has developed over a hundred online courses.”

The result of step 2: you have determined which eLearning tools are more suitable for the company, analyzed the distance learning market, and selected suitable offers.

Step 3. Calculate the budget and draw up an action plan

How much does a rocket cost? For the ship to fly to the ISS, 2.589 billion rubles will be required, to Mars - 10 billion dollars. The price directly depends on the goals and resources that you use.

When the goal is defined and the tools are chosen, it becomes easier to calculate the check - how much distance learning will cost.

It's not just the cost of eLearning tools that should be budgeted for. List salaries for the distance learning team, money to develop e-learning courses, buy computers for employees - everything without which eLearning will not take off.

Vladimir Radzhapov,
Managing Business Development Manager at eQueo

“When the goal is defined, the tools are selected and the budget is calculated, draw up a work plan. It needs to describe in detail the entire sequence of actions. Estimate exact deadlines for each item.

Example: the supplier promised to set up the LMS in 2 days, it will take 5 days to develop the course, 5 days to pilot the launch and fine-tune the LMS. In total, the project will require 12 days.

The next step is to present the plan to management. The information should be short and reasoned. What to show:

Project goals from a business point of view. Example: reduce the share of face-to-face training by 40%, increase the speed of adaptation of a new employee in the company (for example, from 30 working days to 20), and so on.
Benefit of the company - how much it will save or earn. Example: the company "Sweet Life" brings to the market a new bar "Slastun". 3,000 sales representatives need to talk about a product feature. On full-time education it will take 2 months and xxx rubles. For remote - 5 days and xxx rubles less.
What resources will be needed: LMS, course editor, webinar platform, computers for employees in branches, developer of electronic courses.
Project budget: the project will need N rubles.
When to expect the result: the project will be launched in xxx days.

Also present the project to top managers and heads of key departments. If they don't know what eLearning is, they can get in the way."

The result of step 3: you know the eLearning price tag, the management has approved the budget, the action plan is ready, the project launch dates are known. You can buy distance learning tools and get started.

Step 4. Prepare training content

SDO installed. Now we need to fill it with content. An empty distance learning system - like a rocket that has not been loaded with tools and supplies, has not been filled with fuel - so early in space.

Upload presentations, books, instructions, videos, e-courses to the LMS - everything that employees need to study.

Ideally, at this stage, you should have an eLearning development plan for a year or two ahead and a list of materials needed to study. But at the start, it is enough to release one electronic course in order to conduct a pilot launch and “run in” the system.

If you plan to develop courses in the company on a regular basis, then you will need two specialists:

Methodologist - collects information, writes a script for an electronic course, comes up with practical tasks, typesets a draft version of the course. Often in Russian companies, this task is performed by an HR department specialist or a business coach who previously conducted face-to-face classes.
Designer - selects illustrations, characters, draws up a course in a corporate style.

distance learning consultant

“If a company rarely needs new courses or you don't want to keep eLearning specialists on staff, there are two options: buy ready-made e-courses on the market or order from experienced developers.

Ready courses. These are template trainings on general topics: time management, personnel management, working with Outlook. Each looks like a simple PowerPoint presentation: text, picture, video. Any company can download such courses via the Internet.

Advantages:

Cheap. On the market, such courses cost from 40,000 rubles or more. The price tag depends on the subject, complexity, interactivity of the course.
Free test drive. As a rule, sellers allow you to study the course before buying.
Saving time. No need to develop content yourself. Optimal solution to quickly start eLearning.

Courses to order. Experienced developers "sharpen" the course for your company, taking into account the tasks and features of the business, corporate style, etc. Such courses become the hallmark of the educational portal, they are talked about, they are recommended, they cover a large target audience of students. Cost: from 120,000 to 5,000,000 rubles. Development time: from a week to two months.

Advantages:

Teamwork. The course is typeset by a team of professionals: pedagogical designers, illustrators, developers and testers, experts and methodologists.
Methodology. The training is collected according to the canons of pedagogical design, making it as interesting and useful as possible for employees.
Individual approach. The course is developed specifically for your company, taking into account the specifics of work and business features.

Step 4 results: you have uploaded one or two electronic courses to the LMS for a pilot launch.

Step 5. Conduct a trial run of distance learning

Before sending a rocket to the stars, engineers carry out a "dry start" - they launch the ship along a ballistic trajectory, without launching into orbit. This is a kind of general run, which helps to work out the mistakes before the real flight.

For distance learning, a “dry start” is also important. Instead of immediately "forging" the pros to new standards, first run eLearning on a test group. Its task is to identify difficulties in working with LMS.

Co-founder Corporate
e-Learning Club

“For a pilot launch, it is worth choosing potentially loyal employees. It is best to select people for the testing team together with the heads of departments for which eLearning is being prepared.

The focus group doesn't have to be big. It all depends on the size of the company. If it employs 150 people, then 10 will be enough for a trial run.

The first course must necessarily end with a questionnaire: is it easy to use LMS? did the course open quickly? what difficulties arose?

Instead of a questionnaire, you can collect a survey and put it at the end of the course. People will test the first course and write about their impressions, difficulties, mistakes they have noticed, and tell what they have learned.”

By collecting this information, you will make the necessary changes to the system and make it “friendlier” for employees.

Results of step 5: conducted a pilot launch of distance learning, received a list of comments from the focus group, corrected errors. You can start learning.

Step 6. Conduct internal PR of distance learning

Like any new project, eLearning needs advertising support. If employees enter the training portal only by order from above, then the implementation has failed. How to increase the authority of distance learning?

Alexander Lopar,
eLearning expert

“First connect the leadership to distance learning. The upper echelons of the company should take a couple of courses and firmly state: "eLearning is cool!". If the idea of e-learning takes root among the leaders, then the team members will automatically follow them. After all, it is the manager who encourages his employees to learn.

To make the project more useful, link eLearning to a company-critical project: train sales representatives from 10 branches on a new product line in a short time or “train” managers in working with a newly installed CRM in a month.

Do not forget about internal PR: news, announcements, course trailers, video greetings, awards, ratings, congratulations.

Collect feedback from colleagues on the courses taken, record interviews - broadcast what heights have been achieved by those who have completed their studies. This will highlight the benefits of the new learning format.

Pay special attention to the motivation of "students". Involvement in learning will help:

Emphasis on benefits. Explain to employees how the course will benefit them. To stay motivated, employees need to understand the real benefits of eLearning, as well as put what they learn into action.
Certificates. Issue diplomas for completed courses: "Zhgun of the month - passed all the courses in the LMS", "Golden brain of the company - scored 100 points in the test." Research shows that status at work is just as important to employees as financial rewards. It is important for people to feel that management sees their achievements.
Virtual board of honor. Make a rating of excellent students. Thanks to public recognition and approval, the leaders of the ranking strive to keep the bar, while the rest receive an incentive to study better.
Feedback. Respond to the comments and wishes of employees: make changes to courses, create new content on request, correct errors in the LMS.”

Results of step 6: everyone in the company pronounces “eLearning” with respect, employees actively use the LMS, the internal chat is torn from the number of additional content orders.

Step 7. Evaluate the effectiveness of distance learning

So, the ship called eLearning left the atmosphere. You are at the helm. Now the main thing is to stay on course.

How to understand that you are "flying" in the right direction:

collect feedback from employees;
compare the achievements of those who study remotely and in person;
regularly conduct knowledge cuts;
track how the success of employees is changing, whether performance indicators are improving: the number of closed deals, completed projects, etc.

eLearning has reached the “orbit” if it solves real business problems, helps employees acquire new skills faster, or reduces training costs.

Then you can choose a different route and fly to new stars.

Remember

Before you start distance learning, decide on the direction: where and why you are flying.
LMS, course editor, webinar platform - eLearning rocket configuration depends on the goals and objectives of the star campaign.
A detailed action plan will help "sell" the idea to management and get a budget for the flight.
Dry start will help you find bugs and debug your eLearning rocket.
For a space expedition to be useful, it must solve a real business problem.
Check the course more often: collect feedback from employees, conduct knowledge cuts, compare learning outcomes with business indicators.

for teachers

educational institutions

Organization of distance learning

by using

modern ICT

g. o. Novokuibyshevsk, 2009

Published by decision of the Editorial Board of the "Resource Center" of the city of. Novokuibyshevsk.

Compiled by: , Methodist.

Responsible editor: , head of the media library.

Reviewers:

Resource Center Director

Deputy Director of the Resource Center

Organization of distance learning using modern ICT: Guidelines for teachers of educational institutions. - Mr. o. Novokuibyshevsk, 2009 - 32 pages.

Where it is methodically justified, sound, animations, graphic inserts, video sequences, etc. are included in hypertext, however, it must be remembered that excessive visibility reduces the material absorption rate.

The training material should be available to the cadet, if possible, in several forms, for example: via the Internet, on a CD, in printed form.

In general, the following content components are included in the structure of the material:

training tasks

control tasks

As practice shows, when building a distance course, the most effective multimedia presentation of educational information.

It is known from psychology that the result of one's own work causes certain positive emotions, which give rise to additional motivation for learning. It is also known that for better assimilation of the material, each person develops individual methods of work and memorization.

A multimedia course based on the use of modern network technologies allows the cadet to illustrate the text being studied at his own discretion, making it more personal (to select the content in accordance with his individual needs, to choose and fix in the text the ways that are most effective for him personally). Multimedia elements create additional conducive to the perception and memorization of the material. It becomes possible to use the student's subconscious reactions, for example, summing up or issuing a task in each lecture of the course can be preceded by a certain sound (melody), setting the cadet to a certain type of work.

In addition, a multimedia course can be used repeatedly and multifunctionally: a part of a course or lecture can form an independent fragment of a lesson for repetition or control without additional efforts of the teacher. The course can be based not only on an extended model of a textbook (text), but also on an extended model of a lecture-process (“presentation”), which also creates additional opportunities for managing and self-managing cognitive processes.

Recently, the means of “3D-technologies” on the Internet have become widespread, three-dimensional volumes, which are an improved electronic model, are not book page(like Web pages), but rooms, a museum hall, a city square, etc. 3D objects have the effect of presence: you can choose the viewing angle of objects, you can move from one object to another, etc. organizational plan distance education can be considered as a further improvement in the ways of representing educational material, which significantly stimulate cognitive interest. The expansion of virtual possibilities and the introduction of the principles inherent in hypertext into such a model make it possible to successfully use it for educational purposes.

4. Organization of remote educational process

When organizing distance education, direct participants in this process play a huge role - both students and teachers, coordinators of distance courses, consultants and curators of study groups. All of them use the power of the Internet to solve specific problems. pedagogical tasks. Moreover, if it is quite enough for a trainee to simply master the Internet at the user level, then certain knowledge and skills are required from teachers and curators to organize the work of cadets in a telecommunications environment within the framework of the set didactic tasks:

methodological foundations

To create an uninterrupted learning environment, the interaction of its components at three levels is necessary:

teaching materials

To successfully manage the process of distance education, it is advisable to use various memos, cadet class schedules, guides and explanations that will help cadets plan their working time, orient themselves in educational materials and successfully complete training in compliance with all deadlines.

It is very important to calculate the optimal duration of the training course, as its effectiveness is reduced if the duration is too long. With the modular construction of courses, it makes sense to first include less short-term modules in the plan, then large ones, and finally short ones again.

The organization of distance education requires the involvement of specialists of various professions: managers and course organizers, pedagogical coordinators and curators, teachers, highly qualified methodologists for the development of educational materials, technical specialists and system operators involved in the technical support of the educational process.

Particular attention should be paid to the teachers-curators and teachers-coordinators, where it is important to provide feedback and organize communication between the participants of the training. They must be highly qualified in the field of teaching, master the theory of learning, be able to create educational environment and manage it, be able to manage the structure of the training course, know pedagogical technologies and means of telecommunications, master the skills of presenting educational material (it is interesting to present new material, ask questions, conduct a lesson and organize feedback), be able to communicate with cadets.

The teacher-curator provides communication between students and teachers and course authors, as well as promptly answers questions about the course, monitors the timeliness of submission of reporting materials. The teacher-coordinator supports students in the field, that is, on the basis of the regional center that is associated with the parent organization. He acts simultaneously in several persons: as a secretary, an administrator, a technical consultant and as a teacher-adviser. He must be able to organize individual group training, solve technical problems, instruct cadets, evaluate and control their work, and maintain course documentation.

Technical specialists (they can be not only engineers, but also methodologists or administrators who understand the peculiarities of the network technologies used) decide as soon as possible technical problems, provide the necessary advice or technical assistance to needy participants in distance education to work with technology.

Each of the participants in the process can interact with other specialists and with each other. Interaction between participants is a key element of any educational program.

Cadets work most of the time on their own. If they have a desire to ask a question to a teacher or partner, then they need to make some efforts (compose the text of the question, send it by e-mail and wait for a response). On the one hand, this makes the cadet more thoughtful about the material, think over the wording of questions, on the other hand, this can lead to carelessness in work, if for some reason the cadet does not want to ask questions, leaves the problem unresolved, thereby allowing a certain gap in his knowledge. Therefore, course programs should stimulate as much as possible interactive interaction between cadets and teachers, between cadets themselves, as well as between cadets and educational material to improve the quality of training and motivation. The organization of group work of cadets, frequent exchange of questions and answers, project work, etc. can help with this.

Providing feedback between the cadet and the teacher allows you to constantly monitor the activities of the cadets, the problems that they have. The feedback mechanism is aimed at checking the fulfillment of goals and objectives for each stage of training. Feedback can be carried out in any form, including in the form of control testing (initial, intermediate, final), discussions, teleconferences. To do this, you can use various questionnaires and tests, for the answers to which cadets just need to enter the answer in the required line of the form or select the correct answer from several proposed options, and then send it by e-mail.

In the process of distance education, it is very important to organize a prompt response of teachers to the questions of cadets. Computer telecommunications create all the necessary conditions for this, providing prompt transmission of information by e-mail or organizing consultations within the framework of a teleconference.

With distance education, the participants in this process do not see each other, unless, of course, videoconferencing is used, communication occurs, as a rule, in a verbal form. Therefore, the learning process can be personalized by introducing participants to each other so that communication is lively, personal.

The teacher's functions are reduced to monitoring the learning process for the assigned tasks, advising cadets on problematic issues, organizing and conducting discussions on the issue under study, as well as monitoring the level of assimilation of educational material.

The information flow that occurs between a teacher and a cadet, carried out with the help of telecommunications, is two-way - part of the information goes from the teacher to the cadet, and the other - from the cadet to the teacher. If a group of cadets interacting with the teacher is formed in the process of learning, then the information flow forms several more directions: from the teacher to the whole group, from the whole group to the teacher, from the cadet to the group, from the group to the cadet, etc.

Some authors (V. Dombrachev, V. Kuleshev, E. Polat) single out constant (“static”) and variable (“dynamic”) components in the information flow of distance learning. They include materials that are transmitted to students simultaneously before the start of training and for a long time, for example, basic textbooks and teaching aids, curricula, recommendations for studying educational material, questions for self-control, etc.

The variable component includes educational materials and correspondence transmitted from the teacher to students and vice versa in the learning process, for example, the teacher's comments on the student's answers to Control questions, recommendations for studying the material, student answers, coursework materials, etc.

To implement such a process that is complex in terms of the dynamics of information flows, training tools based on modern information technologies are required. At the same time, traditional means can also be widely used:

didactic materials

The same teaching aids, but in electronic form (as a rule, archives), can be stored on the network server and used by the trainee in the process of work.

Along with the “classical” construction of a distance course, telecommunications projects can also be used in the practice of distance education. Students can take part in projects both individually, being included in a project developed by a group of colleagues, geographically separated and supervised by the coordinator of the educational sector, and a group led by their teacher. The activity of trainees within the framework of projects is most effective if it is preceded by a certain systematic training course that prepares the trainee for participation in a telecommunications project.

In distance education, one can distinguish the following types projects:

Research . Such projects are characterized by the presence of clearly defined goals that are relevant and significant for the participants, a well-thought-out and justified structure, the wide use of an arsenal of research methods, the use scientific methods processing and presentation of results. At the same time, the principle of accessibility and content of research methods is put at the forefront. The topics of research projects should reflect the most actual problems development of the subject area, take into account their importance for the development of research skills of cadets.

Gaming . In such projects, the main content is role-playing game when participants (cadets) assume certain roles for business imitation and resolution of fictional or real-life professional situations. Game projects, in our opinion, should be preceded by the participation of cadets in research projects in order to deeply master the factual material, which is the basis for conducting role-playing games.

Practice-oriented. The peculiarity of this type of projects is the preliminary formulation of a clear, significant for the cadet, having practical value of the result, expressed in material form: preparation of a magazine, newspaper, reader, video film, computer program, multimedia products, etc. The development and implementation of this type of project requires detail in the study of the structure, determining the functions of participants, intermediate and final results. This type of project is characterized by tighter control by the project coordinator and author.

Creative . Their peculiarity lies in the fact that they do not have a predetermined and detailed structure. In a creative project, the teacher (coordinator) determines only Common parameters and indicates the best ways to solve problems. Necessary condition creative projects is a clear statement of the planned result, significant for the cadets. The specificity of such a project involves intensive work of cadets with primary sources, with documents and materials, often contradictory, not containing ready-made answers. Creative projects stimulate the maximum activation of the cognitive activity of students, contribute to the effective development of skills and abilities to work with documents and materials, the ability to analyze them, draw conclusions and generalizations.

A detailed methodology for using projects within the framework of distance education has not yet been developed in any methodical literature, nor in practice.

In conclusion, it should be noted that this lecture only introduces the phenomenon of distance education. Teaching the technological foundations of organizing distance education requires, at a minimum, mastering the following methods:

goal-setting and development of learning criteria; planning and selection of training content, development of methodological apparatus; online representation of educational material; choice of forms of network interaction between the teacher and students; the formation of criteria-oriented tools for monitoring the assimilation of the material and the development of procedures for their application.

5. Basic technologies of distance learning.

The distance education system should create the most creative and logical information environment around the participants in the educational process (administration, teachers and students), convenient for a quick and well-structured exchange of educational, methodological and administrative information that constitutes the content of the learning process.

Distance learning uses various information and communication technologies (most often a combination of different technologies). Modern distance education technologies streamline the process of managing the education system, optimize the assimilation of knowledge through the formation of a specialized information environment that is convenient for a person who habitually uses the Internet to obtain information and interpersonal communications.

The Internet as a whole is an almost ideal technical medium for distance education. But it must be remembered that any training requires a certain organizational and informational support. You need to have the following structures:

support for the design of educational material;

delivery of educational material to students;

Support for "reference" materials;

· consultations;

knowledge control;

Organization of communication between listeners.

By Internet technologies in general, we mean distance learning technology based on the use of global and local computer networks to provide students with access to educational information resources and to form a set of methodological, organizational, technical and software tools for implementing and managing the educational process, regardless of its location. subjects. It is the use of Internet technologies that makes it possible to most fully realize the potential of distance education.

When introducing Internet technologies into the system of distance education, it is necessary to single out two directions for the implementation of this process:

1. Management of the educational process, which carries out educational institution;

2. Technological support for the functioning of the information system, which is carried out by a specialized service - provider.

Under the technological support of Internet technologies for distance education, we mean the provision of information and communication services for access to software and hardware resources, as well as technological support for all users. Here we can distinguish two options for technological support.

The first is the placement of distance education software on a server connected to the Internet, thus, in addition to educational tasks, an educational institution should also deal with special technical tasks for server maintenance.

The second option is the use of an external source in the organization of distance education. Outsourcing services (outsourcing from English - the use of an external source) are provided by distance learning service providers. In relation to the university, this means that all distance education software operates on powerful servers of a specialized provider company. All participants educational process perform their functions by accessing servers via the Internet, use the appropriate interfaces. Outwardly, this is no different from visiting sites on the Internet that has become habitual, except that in the case of distance education, the entrance to the personal pages of participants is made after entering a login and password. Outsourcing is the most economical for universities - no costs for maintaining server equipment, system administration.

By method of obtaining educational information are distinguished: synchronous educational systems (systems on-line, in real time), asynchronous systems (systems off-line) and mixed systems.

Synchronous systems involve simultaneous participation in the process of training sessions of the trainees and the teacher. Such systems include: various web-chats, web-telephony, interactive TV, teleconferences NetMeeting, Telnet. For conducting remote lessons, it is most convenient and easy to use web chats, especially for group lessons.

Asynchronous systems do not require the simultaneous participation of students and the teacher. The student himself chooses the time and plan of classes. Such systems in distance education include courses based on printed materials, audio / video cassettes, floppy disks, CD-ROMs, e-mail, web pages, FTP, web forums (electronic bulletin board), Guest books, Teleconferences (subscription to groups news).

mixed systems, which use elements of both synchronous and asynchronous systems.

By technical basis transmission data, the following forms of distance learning can be distinguished:

§ means of audio graphics (interactive whiteboards, as well as educational films, radio, television);

§ through interactive WebTV and video conferences;

§ Through newsgroups Usenet, IRC.

§ through e-mail and mailing lists (lists);

§ through web pages;

§ via chat, web-forum and guest book.

Recently, the Internet has been actively replacing other forms of distance learning. This is due to three things:

1) Technical development Internet technologies that allow you to simulate any training model;

2) Easy to connect to the Internet,

3) Relatively low connection cost.

The following factors and conditions are important for obtaining optimal results of distance learning:

Availability of a modern computer base and good access to the Internet for potential distance students,

availability of good distance teachers educational resources and distance education experience,

good preparation of distance lessons,

availability of trained local coordinators,

Regular remote learning

moral and material incentives for remote activities.

Optimal results of a distance lesson can be obtained when:

1. A highly informative, understandable, well-illustrated learning resource and its local version have been carefully designed.

2. Students are well prepared and have a good command of the proposed material.

3. Communication between a teacher and students via the Internet is carried out without failures and by all available means.

For this it is necessary :

create a hypertext structure, thereby combining the theoretical material of the subject into a visually presented, logical structure.

create a software package that allows students to independently control the quality and completeness of learning;

create a set of test tasks that allow the teacher to assess the completeness of the assimilation of theoretical knowledge.

It is very important to receive some educational products in the process of conducting a distance lesson, for example, in the form of an increment in the knowledge and skills of a student, or (better) in the form of a created educational document.

So, the role of distance technologies in improving the effectiveness of vocational education is certainly great. Distance learning based on Internet technologies is a modern universal form of education. It is focused on the individual needs of trainees and their specialization. Distance learning provides an opportunity for everyone to continuously improve their professional level, taking into account individual characteristics. In the process of such training, the student independently masters a certain part of the time. teaching materials in an interactive mode, is tested, performs tests under the guidance of a teacher and interacts with other students of the "virtual" study group.

By creating an automated learning system based on modern information and telecommunication technologies and reducing unit costs per student in comparison with traditional education systems, the distance education system makes it possible to provide a fundamentally new level of education accessibility while maintaining its quality. And although in distance learning the student and teacher are spatially separated from each other, they are nevertheless in constant interaction, organized with the help of special methods of building a training course, forms of control, communication methods based on the use of Internet technologies.

Forms of distance learning

Distance learning, carried out with the help of computer telecommunications, has the following forms of classes.

Chat classes- training sessions carried out using chat technologies. Chat classes are held synchronously, that is, all participants have simultaneous access to the chat. Within the framework of many distance learning institutions, there is a chat school, in which, with the help of chat rooms, the activities of distance teachers and students are organized.

Web lessons- remote lessons, conferences, seminars, business games, laboratory work, workshops and other forms of training sessions conducted using telecommunications and other features of the World Wide Web.

For web classes, specialized educational web forums are used - a form of user work on a specific topic or problem with the help of entries left on one of the sites with the corresponding program installed on it.

Web forums differ from chat classes in the possibility of longer (multi-day) work and the asynchronous nature of the interaction between students and teachers.

Teleconferences- conducted, as a rule, on the basis of mailing lists using e-mail. Educational teleconferencing is characterized by the achievement of educational objectives.

virtual classroom

virtual classroom is the user core of the educational IT environment and is a complex distributed system. It usually includes infrastructural software and technical components that virtually unite the workplaces of the teacher and students into a study group operating on a network (local or global). An example of a Virtual Classroom is the Internet service KMExpert - a knowledge assessment system that allows you to perform on-line testing, certification and training of employees of organizations and Internet users. KMExpert maintains a self-populated Knowledge Base containing training and control tests from various areas of knowledge and expert knowledge assessment results for these tests.

Examples of organization of distance learning:

Click here to learn more about distance education options.:

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Literature:

"Fundamentals of distance learning", tutorial. Andreev in distance learning. Teaching aid. - M.: VU, 1997. The concept of creation and development unified system distance education in Russia. Goskomvuz RF, M., 1995. "Distance learning: organizational and pedagogical aspects" INFO, No. 3, 1996 "Distance learning" / Textbook, ed. . - M.: Humanit. ed. center VLADOS, 1998 "Conceptual model of distance education" // Trimester - 1996, No. 1 Shukshina of distance education using Internet technologies: article, Krasnoyarsk State University, Krasnoyarsk, Russia 2008 Polat and practice of distance learning: Proc. allowance for students. higher ped. textbook establishments / , ; Ed. . - M .: Publishing Center "Academy", 200c.

Expert: in area information technologies and instructional video

Distance learning systems have long been known to university professors. But the schools e-learning discovered recently. With the help of remote educational technologies it is possible not only to shift a number of routine pedagogical actions onto the shoulders of the computer, but also to organize truly high-quality, individual, differentiated learning. Our article today is devoted to an overview of the three most famous free systems and three paid distance learning.

Distance learning system Moodle

Short description

We will start our review of distance learning services with Moodle - this is one of the most popular distance learning systems in Russia (abbreviated as LMS).

The advantages of this method:

no need to install anything - register and get a ready-to-work system;
there is a free plan;
there is support for the Russian language;
there is a video conferencing plugin;
automatic update (a trifle, but nice).

However, you may encounter certain disadvantages of the cloud service:

a third-level domain that is difficult for students to remember;
only 50 registered users (for a school this is very small);
there is no way to install your modules;
There are ads that you can't turn off.

Edmodo

Distance learning system Edmodo

The next thing we'll look at is the Edmodo web application, as a special service on the Internet that does not need to be installed anywhere. Edmodo positions itself as social network for learning or Facebook for learning - it is built on the principle of social educational networks, and the interface resembles appearance Facebook.

Characteristic Edmodo

The logic of work in this application is as follows. The teacher creates a group (in fact, this is an electronic course). The group has its own unique link and code that you need to share with other participants in the educational process. A group can have learning elements such as records (in the form of a test or files), tests, assignments, and surveys. You can import content from other services, such as news feeds from your school website, YouTube videos, content from other services.

There are no special bells and whistles in Edmodo, but there are simple and necessary elements - a calendar (for fixing educational events, a journal for grading, the ability to check homework etc.).

Advantages and disadvantages of Edmodo

Let's outline the benefits of the service:

free;
no ads;
simple registration;
users are divided into three groups: teachers, students, parents (each group has its own separate registration, its own access code).

There are also certain disadvantages:

lack of Russian language - although the interface is simple and understandable, English language can be a serious barrier to implementation;
Edmodo groups cannot be combined, i.e. the student will have a bunch of inconvenient (and they are inconvenient) links, with a bunch of codes;
in general, the arsenal of educational elements, although sufficient, is relatively poor - the same tests do not contain additional strategies, there are no thematic tests, etc.

Edmodo has some admin tools. Perhaps they will make it possible to create a unified electronic school environment based on this application, which can greatly facilitate the introduction of distance learning in an educational institution.

Google classroom

Distance learning system Google Classroom

Our review of free learning services is completed by an application from one of the leaders in the IT industry. It should be noted here that Google previously had a large number of educational tools in its arsenal. At some stage, Google decided to combine all these tools into a certain platform, which resulted in the creation of Google Classroom. Therefore, Classroom can hardly be called a classic distance learning system, it is more like a collaboration tape - the same Google for education, only collected in one place. Therefore, Google Classroom is ineffective, it cannot be particularly surprising, and the organization of truly effective collaboration requires, in my opinion, a lot of effort from the teacher and, most importantly, a significant restructuring of the educational process.

Previously, Google Classroom had a relatively complex system for registering and accessing a course for users, but about six months ago, Google opened up free registration and now access to Classroom is as easy as Facebook.

Other features of Google include:

using only Google tools (Google drive, Google docs, etc.);
participants in the educational process create a shared folder “Class” on Google Drive;
the “Class” folder is available both for an individual student and for the class as a whole.

Advantages and disadvantages

Among the advantages of the solution from Google are:

support for the Russian language (the same Edmodo exists longer and has a better interface, but it never became popular due to the lack of support for the great and mighty);
free;
brand - everyone knows Google and the use of the world leader's products looks solid;
Google was created specifically for schools, unlike Moodle, which is more suitable for universities;
The traditional functions of Google are implemented well: it is possible to publish theoretical material, assignments, grades in a journal, there is a calendar.

Let's highlight the disadvantages of such a solution:

very poor arsenal of educational elements. One of the poorest sets of training elements. On the other hand, if we consider it as a collaboration feed, then the main thing in Google will be the organization of collaboration, and not control elements, such as tests (which, by the way, Google does not have);
links to Classroom are not convenient;
The interface leaves much to be desired.

Tests in Google Classroom

There are no tests in Google, so many people create tests based on Google Forms. It is designed to create polls, but with a certain amount of imagination, polls turn into tests with a flick of the wrist….. I recommend trying OnLineTestPad, a self-hosted web service for creating tests.

OnLineTestPad

This is a free online testing service. The network nature of testing means that you have all the data about the attempts of students, all their grades, all their correct and incorrect answers. Let's briefly outline the features of OnLineTestPad:

the service has a large number of forms of test tasks (there are no only graphic questions);
flexible settings (there are training testing strategies, there are random (thematic) questions, various restrictions, etc.);
The main disadvantage is a huge amount of advertising. You can try to turn it off by "legal" actions, but this requires additional labor.
this service causes positive feedback from teachers and teachers, is one of the best services for organizing testing.

There are various ways to organize distance learning based on new information technologies: based on interactive television, telecommunications, based on CD-ROM technologies, educational radio and television, video recording, etc.

IN last years Four types are becoming more common

distance learning based on:

1. interactive television (two-way TV);
2. computer telecommunication networks (regional and global, Internet) in the mode of exchanging text files;
3. computer telecommunication networks using multimedia information, including in interactive mode, as well as using computer videoconferencing;
4. combination of the first and second.

Education based on interactive television (two-way TV), with all its attractiveness, the possibility of direct visual contact with an audience located at different distances from the teacher, has its drawbacks. The fact is that with such training, the usual lesson is practically replicated, whether it is built according to the traditional method or using modern methods. pedagogical technologies. It is, roughly speaking, about replication with the help of modern technologies method used by the teacher. If used traditional methods classroom system with a predominance of frontal types of work, the effect is lower than usual when the lesson is conducted in one class, because the audience increases significantly due to distant students, and hence the attention of the teacher to each individual student decreases by the same amount. At the same time, in the system of advanced training of teaching staff, this form of distance learning can hardly be overestimated, since teachers, students, pupils can become not just third-party witnesses, but also active participants in the use of new pedagogical, information technologies, take part in discussions, etc. d. This form of distance learning is inherently interactive and, of course, can be considered very promising, if not in the system of mass education, then in the system of advanced training and student training. However, these are still extremely expensive technologies.

Another way to organize distance learning using modern information technologies, as mentioned above, is computer telecommunications in the form of e-mail, teleconferences, other information resources of local networks, as well as the Internet, but only on the basis of textual information. It must be said that at present for the vast majority of schools and IUs in Russia this is the most accessible way of organizing distance learning. This method does not provide for the exchange of graphic, sound files, and does not provide for the use of multimedia tools. This is the cheapest way to organize distance learning, which, however, has significant opportunities, which will be discussed below.

The third method of organizing distance learning provides for the use of the latest means of telecommunication technologies, including multimedia, all the possibilities of the Internet, including video and audio conferences, as well as the use of CDs. Of course, such an organization of distance learning brings great didactic opportunities both for the system of higher education, school education, and for the system of advanced training, in this case, educators.

It should be borne in mind that distance learning also provides for the autonomous use of courses recorded on video disks, CDs, etc., i.e. outside telecommunications networks. However, all programs/courses recorded on video disks, CDs, video cassettes have one common property - they are autonomous and intended for soma education, i.e. they do not provide for prompt feedback from the teacher. Laser discs and CDs are interactive, which cannot be said about video recordings, radio and television, which is their essential advantage compared to the latter. However, this interactivity, which involves various forms interaction with the system, but not with the teacher, and therefore they are all designed for self-education, but not for learning.

The fourth option of distance learning is a combination of the first two technologies or the first and third options - interactive television and computer global telecommunications in various configurations. Of course, such options (especially the first and third ones) are fraught with great opportunities, since they allow at certain moments, at the discretion of the teacher, to "gather" students in a conditional audience and make visual contact with them, demonstrating something or giving the necessary explanations, controlling knowledge of trainees, etc. A similar system has been developed at a number of US universities, in particular, the Keiretsu model (A Keiretsu-based model for technology utilization). However, a similar effect is achieved when using computer video conferencing, but the possibilities of this latest technology are much wider, since on the screen you can receive not only the image of the respondent and talk with him, but also certain inserts in the form of, for example, a fragment of a database, the opinions of partners discussions, static images, graphics, etc.

In Russia, at present, it is not necessary to speak seriously about the fourth option for organizing distance learning, given the socio-economic, political and cultural situation that has developed as a result of many decades of the totalitarian regime. The socio-economic situation does not allow us to hope that in the coming years the federal government will be able to seriously subsidize this area of education. Regional educational structures, with the help and financial support of business circles interested in the quality education of their children and replenishing their business with qualified, active, independent-thinking workers, can invest material resources in this promising area. After all, in this way their children will be able to receive a good education as in the capital educational institutions Russia, as well as in foreign schools and universities, without leaving home, which is very tempting for many.

1. Therefore, bearing in mind the various options for organizing distance learning described above, we are inclined to believe that in the near future in our country it is most realistic to organize distance learning based on computer telecommunications, both regional and global (Internet). At the same time, depending on the economic opportunities of the regions, the technological basis for such training can be
2. Exchange of text files;
3. Exchange of text and graphics, sound files,

use of all possibilities and information resources of the Internet;

The use of a variety of traditional educational materials (printed, sound, audiovisual), as well as new information technologies. In essence, this is the integration of computer telecommunications into the education system. Lessons are free, attendance is free! Internet schools are, firstly, free; secondly, they are an additional educational field and they do not seek to replace the real school, like the "Teleschool". Two projects "Open College" (www.college.ru) and "Virtual School of Cyril and Methodius" (vschool.km.ru) are the leaders among online educational programs for schoolchildren. Classes are held according to the following scheme. The teacher summarizes the topic of the lesson and recommends literature for self-study. The student independently studies the proposed topic and checks his knowledge with the help of a computer task compiled by the teacher. If the student could not find the answer to a particular question of the topic, then he can ask the teacher a question by e-mail. The teacher will either answer the question or recommend literature in which the student can find the answer to his question. At the end of the section, all frequently asked questions are listed with explanations from teachers. At the end of the topic - a knowledge test. Classes in the online school are free, attending lessons is free.