Abstract:

Pandemic has changed world education system to on-line education and confronted higher education systems with new challenges. Russia and China are important actors in the international arena and are actively involved in these processes. The digitalization processes affected Higher education institution. All countries face the key challenges in the field of higher education. One of them is the use of digital educational platforms at Russian and Chinese universities in the context of COVID-19. According to statistics, the experience of using digital platforms to implement the educational process in China has a longer history; only a few Russian universities used remote training before COVID-19 break out.

The major research objectives were to explore: university staff’s and students’ various educational platforms assessment and to determine the possibilities of their application at the universities in Russia and China.

The research methodology combines qualitative and quantitative methods. Early 2020, we conducted a study in the largest megalopolises of Russia (Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Tyumen). The first stage procedure of the study consisted of personal interviews with Russian and Chinese students (N = 600). In-depth interviews were conducted with Chinese graduates of Russian universities (graduate students, master-students) (N = 50).

In March-May 2020, we carried out the second stage of the study at the universities of Moscow, Yekaterinburg, and Chelyabinsk. 500 students were questioned who were forced to pass over to distant education due to the threat of COVID-19. The in-depth interview (N = 20) with experts were conducted, the average conversation duration was 90 minutes. A frame analysis of students’ cases was also carried out (N = 42).

Results:
The study has shown that, according to Russian and Chinese respondents, one of the distant education main issues is remote communication between a lecturer and a student. It is necessary to improve verbal communication in the online space using not only written presentation of educational information, but also using multimedia communication tools that imitate dialogue with video images. 78.0 % respondents believe that the use of Learning Management Systems (LMS) is the most effective, since they facilitate the learning process. The study has revealed that Chinese universities predominantly use the Edmodo, Kahoot, Nearpad, Socrative educational platforms, while Russian high school most often uses the Microsoft Teams, ZOOM, Moodle (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment). Digital technologies based on artificial intelligence, such as chat bots, according to our respondents (56%), also turn out to be very useful in organizing the educational process.

The study results referring to the digitalization of Russian and Chinese higher education has shown that the implemented digital technologies and educational platforms are changing the educational situation itself, the roles of the main participants in the educational process, its coordination, as well as the rules of interaction between its main actors.

The study has found the most popular digital technologies in the educational process, as well as it has revealed their main advantages and disadvantages.

Keywords:

Digitalization of higher education, distant educational technologies, Russian and Chinese higher education, digital educational platforms, educational process.