Digitalization of Modern Education: Problems and Solutions

Abstract

The relevance of the research topic is due to modern global digital transformations and the transition to the digital economy and digital society. Social digitalization is caused by qualitative technological changes. All over the world, digitalization in education is closely related to a new way of life in a digital environment and the emergence of generations who were born and study in the specific environment. The study was based on a survey assessing the quality of digitalization in education, which involved 475 students and 118 teachers of the Russian State Vocational Pedagogical University (Yekateringburg). Based on the analysis of modern research on digital education, the most important components of digitalization have been identified and assessed in the survey. The survey was based on a Likert scale; the importance of each significant aspect of digitalization was assessed from 0 to 10. Unanimously, the research participants rated the level of penetration of digital technologies into Russian higher education as low: 3.15 (students) and 3.43 (teachers). The contribution of digitalization to academic performance was rated above average (7.25 and 5.21, respectively). There were some differences in the assessment of the role of the teacher in the digital environment (4.65 and 7.14), the convenience of the digital environment (7.11 and 2.53) and its positive impact on student motivation (8.09 and 3.61, respectively). The increase in the cognitive capabilities of students due to digitalization was also differently assessed by the students and teachers (6.88 and 3.11, respectively). Thus, digitalization in Russian universities generally reflects the expectation of its future development and a positive student attitude to the available opportunities. The novelty of the research is an attempt to objectively assess the internal process of digitalization and determine further research directions. In practice, the study can reform the education system, accelerate and improve the process of higher education digitalization.