Abstract:

Digital educational technologies (DET) are considered in this study in a broad sense, which includes:
(1) digital (electronic) educational materials (electronic textbooks, presentations, assignments, etc.);
(2) digital educational resources (electronic databases, libraries, search systems, etc.);
(3) digital educational systems (LMS, Moodle, etc.);
(4) digital platforms used for training (ZOOM, MS Teams, etc.), and
(5) digital (virtual) educational environment.

That is, DET include all elements of the education system, which, in one way or another, use not “traditional”, but digital tools, methods, systems.

The article presents an analysis of psychological, pedagogical and sociological studies on various aspects of attitudes towards the use of DET among teachers of Russian and international universities, conducted before and after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and, accordingly, a sharp transition to remote education around the world.

In this empirical study, we used the online survey via MS Forms. The questionnaire included 17 questions on various aspects of teachers' attitudes towards the use of DET (14 multiple choice questions and 3 open-ended questions), as well as 3 questions on socio-demographic characteristics. The study involved 167 (124 – female) RUDN University teachers.

The results of the study show that the majority of university teachers like to master and use new digital resources and technologies in educational process, they feel themselves quite confident in their use, and, in general, they positively assess the impact of digital technologies on education. At the same time, most of the teachers prefer lectures, seminars, and practical classes in face-to-face format. Among the main advantages of DET the teachers consider the opportunities to save time and tools, mobility, and the opportunity to reach a large audience. Among the main DET shortcomings they list the lack of "live" contact with the audience, the difficulty of prompt feedback, and the problems with monitoring students in the process of assignments and tests. The full use of digital technologies in education, according to teachers, is often hampered by technical problems and insufficient digital competence of both university students and teachers.

The research findings will be used to develop recommendations for university teachers in order to optimize the use of DET both during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequently, if it is necessary to use DET in the learning and teaching process.

Keywords:

Digital Educational Technologies, University Teachers, Covid-19 Pandemic, Attitude towards Digital Educational Technologies, Russian University.