Abstract:

The global pandemic and subsequent quarantine measures and restrictions have posed an array of challenges to the structure and procedure of higher education workflow, which influenced significantly the scope of individual experiences, projected outcomes, and estimated quality of higher education in countries across the world. The subsequent warfare in Ukraine has brought forth emergency digitization measures called to adapt and adjust digital learning formats to the technological, emotional, and educational challenges of the active warzone. This study focus is the in-depth assessment of the progress in individual digital and hybrid learning experiences by students of different tiers (Bachelor’s, Master’s, Graduate level) in Oriental (Mandarin Chinese, Japanese) and European (French, Italian, Spanish, English) Languages university level programs at Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University of Ukraine through the span of educational activities in the time-frame of COVID-19 quarantine measures (sustainable digitization) of 2020-2021 and the timespan of active warfare (emergency digitization measures) of 2022. The comparative survey benchmarking and analysis of different e-learning dimensions is used to assess the progress and challenges of individual quality and efficiency of translation of the real-life Foreign Languages Acquisition practices into the digital remote and hybrid format, involving activation of interoperable skills and cross-sectorial activities, facilitated by digital tools.

Three consecutive online surveys of over 700 students of Oriental and European Languages programs provide for disclosure of the following research dimensions:
1) progressive dynamics of student satisfaction with digitalized foreign languages education in Ukraine;
2) assessment of systematized individual experiences and changes in the quality estimation of e-learning and hybrid learning in the framework of COVID-19 lockdown and warfare through the years 2020-2022;
3) assessment of changes in individual experiences and quality of e-learning and hybrid learning in the framework of COVID-19 lockdown as compared to both traditional, face-to-face learning formats and emergency digital learning in the warzone for foreign languages;
4) dynamic quality assessment of learning process design, dynamic development of programmed learning outcomes, and projected competencies for university programs of Oriental and European languages in the framework of 2020-2021 quarantine measures and emergency digitization measures in the wartime of 2022.

The overall positive dynamics of the assessment of estimated challenges of efficient digital educational adaptation are informed by the arrangement of factors:
1) consistently improved level of digitalization of the teaching resources and implementation of a functional e-learning environment in the form of a digital campus;
2) consistently improved and adapted the level of digital literacy of students (implemented through flexible digital literacy training at the university for all stakeholders);
3) consistent professional psychological, communicative, technological, and organized peer support to ensure the alleviation of challenges and impeding factors of foreign languages programs adaptation to digital and hybrid formats.

These elements of educational procedure and management can be scaled to serve as best practices and recommendations to ensure sustainable quality of Foreign Languages programs transformation into digital formats.

Keywords:

Digital learning, hybrid learning, digital literacy, foreign languages, quality dynamics, sustainable digitization, emergency digitization.