The distance learning during the pandemic: university teachers’ and students’ opinion

This article studies the problem of distance teaching in the pandemic of spring and autumn 2020. The topic of the necessary transition to the computer-mediated interrelation between university teachers and students gains important nowadays, as the worldwide events lead to an inevitable transformation of the educational structure. The changes in the higher educational institutions make students and teaсhers review their attitude to the system and methods of education. We can find the analysis of distance learning in many sources, but the remote learning in state of emergency has not been fully examined. The purpose of this article is to analyze the situation, connected with the distance learning in higher educational institutions, its impact on the level of students’ knowledge and skills. This article gives the perspectives of education taking into consideration information and communication technologies. The authors have conducted the theoretical and comparative analysis of literature, observed the learning process at university, and offered a questionnaire to university teachers and students. The researchers have revealed that, in spite of the technologies being a part of our lives, the quality of education depends on teachers who can use these technologies to their best. A technology without a person does not work. According to the majority of the respondents, the principles of teaching dominate over technologies. However, some elements of teaching should be definitely automated. The pandemic revealed the specific mistakes and weaknesses of high education in Russia, and the authors suggest some ways for its improvement in the period of sanitary and epidemiological restrictions.