The part is aimed to analyze the current situation of digital communication platforms at Russian universities it is done with help of comparative analyses of secondary and primary research. Important to realize that each survey presents a certain period of time that will demonstrate the whole trend of digitalization in Russian higher education. All surveys were already analyzed separately in chapter 3.1. and 3.2., however, it is also required to find similarities and differences between them. To put it differently, all surveys were conducted at various times starting from 2016 and finishing to April 2021. There is also a different number of questions and participants at those questionnaires, but primary research covers all of the analyzed secondary survey questions in order to see any modification through time.
According to the research of Tomsk State University, which was organized in 2016, the dominant number of students answered that they are using digital communication platforms mostly for uploading their paper works and using them during offline lectures for commenting materials from those platforms and for some other activities. In this case, there was not mentioned anything about online video and audio lectures what was about five years ago. At the same time, the majority of respondents answered that they have online
lectures and exams, notably all of the possible features of digital communication platforms are used at Russian universities today. Despite the lack of questions about this at other surveys, it can be noticed that Tuvan State University’s students are exercising Zoom application and Nations Institute of Business is using Webinar.ru, Skype, Zoom, and many others, that proves that those two universities have used an opportunity to organize video class during coronavirus quarantine. Consequently, the versatility’s level of digital communication platforms was tremendously developed due to circumstances of the coronavirus quarantine, as more features of them are using today than it was in 2016.
The next question for comparative analysis is about the frequency of those platforms’ usage.
Students at Tuvan State University emphasized that most of them spent no more than three hours per one week using communication platforms for study purposes. Meanwhile, students of NIB selected that they are daily using platforms, the same as the primary research of Russian students from absolutely different universities demonstrates that students spend more than 6 hours per one week on that. The situation was definitely changed as the frequency of using digital communication platforms for study purposes was extremely increased.
What is more, all of the surveys were aimed to understand students’ attitudes to digital communication platforms and all of them introduce positive similarity. As it can be seen that most of the surveys have more than 50 percent of students who were satisfied with their tools although NIB has only 41 percent of respondents where majority preferred to stay neutral answering the question. The same situation is in primary research, 46 percent chose the neutral position. Nevertheless, there were some who selected affirmative responses but with a small note that there are some disadvantages in the way. In a word, not all of the students are definitely satisfied with used platforms despite the time period, some have a neutral opinion about digital communication platforms.
Indeed, the following point is about the comfortability of the distance learning system, as it is substantial to understand if students find online learning as a suitable way for higher education. Tuvan State university’s report claimed that most people answered positively on the question as well as NIB’s students who have 95 percent of affirmatory answers. In the same fashion, more than seventy percent of people are sure that feel comfortable in applying the platforms during education at universities. It means that the distance learning system was well organized during coronavirus quarantine and was suitable for the majority of respondents. It points out that NIB and primary report have the same results that students feel neutral about digital communication platforms, and less of them fifty percent of respondents like them. However, more than seventy percent in primary research and more than ninety – five percent in NIB research were satisfied by the organization of the distance learning process. It confirms the idea that those people like online learning as a process, but they do not fully like communication platforms that are used for that.
Talking about motivation to study online, most of the students from both surveys, the Tuvan State University survey and the primary research, mentioned that it was not changed. At the same time, the third part of respondents from those two surveys are sure that their motivation was even decreased.
Important to realize how applications of digital communication platforms were changing during the time period. LMS Moodle platform was in the first ranking in Tomsk State University, and it was the main tool for education, the other one was an internal electronic platform of the university. Similarly, the Tuvan State University survey showed mostly the same results where the internal electronic university platform is in the first place and LMS Moodle is in the second one, other positions were taken by Zoom and YouTube.
Correspondingly, the High School of Economics’ survey introduced such statics where Webinar.Ru is in the first place, later there are Skype, Zoom, Mirapolis, YouTube, and Cisco Webex. Nevertheless, the HSE university is also using the LMS Moodle system, which is mentioned on their webpage and, surprisingly, it was not written in the report. What is more, the application was not so popular in the primary research and only ten percent voted for it, while the majority selected Zoom and Microsoft Teams. Such dynamics can be explained as there was a strong need in video and audio calls between members of the education process that forced them to use those systems, as a result, students got used to applying those tools and continue to do it even now. Other popular platforms were Telegram, WhatsApp, and Slack which have the only possibility to communicate by different types of massages. Another point is that twenty – four percent selected university portals in the primary research. Under those circumstances, it can be said that the spread of platforms was changed a little. Today the highest preference is given to platforms with the ability to have long qualified video classes. Meanwhile, there is still a need for platforms for communication by various messages, and LMS Moodle, Telegram, Slack are the most applicable platforms for that now. Such replacement was done due to coronavirus quarantine and forces measures for online teaching at Russian Universities what was continuing for almost one year.
The next point is the readiness of universities for a new format of education and just HSU and primary research have a question in the surveys about that. Notably, more than forty percent of respondents from HSE report voted that their universities were partly prepared, while more than fifty percent said that they were rather ready than not. For this reason, more universities in the Russian Federation were not certainly ready for distance education or were also partly prepared for that. Definitely, there were some difficulties in the transition process as it was spontaneous actions enough.
Equally important to talk about the readiness of professors for the transition to online teaching and not only primary research but also Tuvan State University was interested in that. The dominant number of Tomsk students said that the teaching staff adapted well, and the process of teaching was very understandable for them. The other part was sure that it was satisfactory, and they did not get material from online lectures. At the same time, a student from the primary research answered that adaptation of their teachers was rather at a normal pace or almost quick. Both of the results demonstrate that most professors have a normal path of adaptation to digital communication platforms for online teaching.
Nevertheless, statistics from the beginning of April 2020 show that some students were confident that it was done not in the best way.
Another substantial idea is to make a comparative analysis of the disadvantages and advantages of online education with help of digital communication platforms. The dominant difficulty is a bad Internet connection or technical issues what was reflected in
each of the analyzed surveys except NIB’s one as it was not discussed. Among other issues, there were some about doing home works especially practical activities. Respondents mentioned that it is hard to work with devices as they have not abilities to work through those communication platforms. This was the second most popular answer among students that they do not know how to use their devices for online education. Indeed, primary research also showed that there was a lack of professors’ abilities to work online.
Undoubtedly, there were selected more issues, however, they were not so common.
Nevertheless, there is one that certainly deserves attention it is that not every student has suitable devices for learning online. Such deduction was done based on surveys of HSE and primary research, which shows that not all students were ready for online studying.
Consequently, universities and government need to take more attention to those people and have to provide them an opportunity to study from home on a par with others.
In addition, advantages should be also discussed as it can allow seeing future perspectives of digital communication platforms in Russian higher education. To be more precise, only primary surveys and Tuvan State University was interested in the advantages which Russian students find out in online education with help of digital communication platforms. Most people in both surveys selected that they have the opportunity to download lectures’
materials and presentation and the ability to re-watch recordings. The next benefit is that students were able to study in comfortable conditions for them and to use modern technologies for that. There were mentioned much more conveniences, but the possibility to re-watch and download recordings from online classes, education in suitable environment and opportunity to apply modern technologies especially digital communication platforms were selected by students in April 2020 and April 2021 as the main benefits of online education. Important to realize, that students’ convictions were not changed for the period in one year from the beginning to the end of the process of compelled online education due to coronavirus quarantine.
The last point is the crucial one as it demonstrates students’ opinions on future possibilities of digital communication platforms at Russian universities. Despite the fact that only two surveys have such questions, but it is already enough to find out the trend as it surveys from Tomsk State University which was conducted in 2016 and primary research which was finished in 2021. The comparison of those two research introduces a full picture of students’
opinion changes for five years and it also allows to see the influence of coronavirus on the variation. According to the TSU survey, almost forty percent were against the full replacement of offline to online way of education, and also thirty - five percent gave a change for it. Meanwhile, the primary survey demonstrates that sixty – two percent agree with such transition and see the opportunity of future digitalization of Russian higher education.
Certainly, there is a positive trend to full digitalization of education process at higher education in the country as it can be seen as the number of students who see the possibility of full replacement of offline on online education was dramatically increased for five years and definitely coronavirus quarantine has its mark on such outcomes.
Conclusion
Four chapters of the diploma work make a common representation for comprehension of main points of it and for disclosure the answers for the research question. Chapter one is aimed to give theoretical background for readers on the topic of the thesis and also to detect the needs of it. The second chapter explains the methodology which was used for the writing of the work. The next chapter focuses on the analysis of secondary and primary surveys which are required for comparative analysis based on different time periods. Important to realize that the key aspect of the research is determined by coronavirus quarantine conditions what is directly influencing education in the country. Respondents are students at Russian universities who have faced distance learning with help of digital communication platforms in terms of pandemic quarantine in 2020 and 2021. The goal of the research is to find out potentials for the development of digital communication platforms after the coronavirus and to see possibilities to future higher education transition to digital education permanently.
Based on the analysis there was defined that there happened expansion in the necessity of universities in consuming a higher spectrum of digital communication platforms' functions.
Today higher education in the country has a strong need in those platforms not just for sending messages to each other and uploading educational materials, but also for organizing online video and audio conferences. As a consequence, there has been a high change in attitude towards those platforms and the demand for them is undoubtedly growing. The outcome is done based on the idea that most of the students confirm that platforms were changed during forced online learning. Certainly, the time which students spend in those applications just for the purpose of education noticeably increased from up to 1 hour per one week to more than 6 hours per one week. This already proves that time is changing and an approach for teaching students is switching, too. What is more, the motivation of students to study online is also slowly growing, although most people feel neutral about such changes.
Talking about exact digital communication platforms which were used and are used for study purposes at Russian higher education, there is some change in the distribution of utilization of them. As it was written in the previous article, applications that are used just for communication with help of messages are still applied, but there is a great need for platforms with functions of organizing video lectures. As a result, it can be seen that previously preference was given to LMS Moodle and internal electronic web applications of universities, but now Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype, and Cisco Webex have high demand.
Nevertheless, students are also using Telegram, WhatsApp, and Slack not just for personal companionship, but also for tuition goals.
Undoubtedly, coronavirus quarantine made its own adjustments in the teaching process and functioning of universities in the country. As the method of education was changed, digital communication platforms were changed, too. Hence, universities, professors, and students had a kind of stress test in those conditions but definitely, not all of them were
ready for those transitions. The analysis of the research demonstrates students’ opinion that most universities were partly prepared for that. However, there are some people who mentioned that their universities were not ready for the transitions. By all means, such level of readiness is conditioned by many factors including governmental allocation of funds for digitalization of higher education and training of professors for that, abilities of students and professors to work through digital communication platforms and many others. All things considered, at the beginning of the quarantine majority of students were sure that their professors adapted perfectly, notwithstanding, when the offline learning was finished dominant number of respondents mentioned that the adaptation of professors was in a middle path, but quick enough. Consequently, most of the professors did their best to adapt faster to the new format of teaching their students.
In order to understand further perspectives of the digitalization of universities in the country, there is a need to know which positive and negative sides students see in online education through digital communication platforms. Of course, higher education and its participants have faced with the compelled distance learning and they have their own opinion about that. As a result, the main issues are bad Internet connection, technical issues with application and devices, inconvenience to use platforms and devices for education purposes, and lack of personal computers among students. Nevertheless, students found out the positive side of the form of education among which there is the ability to download materials, recording and other things and to re-watch them after classes, suitable environment and work with modern technologies. Based on that there can be observed a high possibility for future digitalization as students enjoy working with modern technologies despite some difficulties which can be fixed in the nearest future.
Another point for future perspectives of digitalization at Russian universities is that most of the respondents were satisfied with distance learning comfortability what was gathered through the analysis of the thesis. As a consequence, it can be said that students give a chance for future development of the universities transition to digital education permanently. However, the attitude of students to the platforms was changed with the increasing frequency of digital communication platforms usage. If previously the majority of respondents had positive feedbacks to them, now the dominant number of people has a neutral position toward digital communication platforms. Such derivation happened as the flow of users and variety of applications were sharply increased some of the platforms had many lags due to those factors. People also started to work more with the application as they were forced by established conditions in terms of quarantine. As a result, students collided with more difficult platforms and their attitude was respectively changed.
Besides, as well as the analytical part of the thesis is only based on students’ opinion, it was especially significant to understanding how they evaluate future possibilities of digitalization. According to the survey from 2016, most students did not see any possibilities for to further universities transition to digital education permanently, but today the number of those who are sure that there is a future in common digitalization grew up. Certainly, there can be done a statement that coronavirus was a trigger to digital development in Russia. Moreover, the quarantine was a kind of a stress test for universities and many of them have improved their positions in digitalization and application of digital communication platforms due to the need to continue teaching students. The conditions
have forced participants of the higher education process to take a look from a different angle at the new approach of studying and to add digital communication platforms in even usual offline studying not only for contacting each other through them and uploading materials but also for organizing online tests and exams and for applying many other functions.