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Introduction. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are currently one of the ways to organize the educational process focused on using information and communication technologies. However, the effectiveness and the best format of their use have not been definitively proven yet. The purpose of the work is to analyze the current state of the MOOCs and the possibility of its use in the modern educational process when teaching a foreign language, both in humanitarian and technical universities, as well as to identify the level of awareness and practical application of online courses by students. Methodology and methods. In the presented work, a data analysis method was used, a questionnaire on the use of MOOCs was developed, which was conducted among students in both humanitarian and technical universities. A comparative analysis of the data obtained was carried out and conclusions were given. The survey was organized among the students of the Translation Faculty of Minsk State Linguistic University (MSLU) and students of technical institutes of Moscow Power Engineering Institute (MPEI). Results. Based on the results of the study of scientific papers on foreign and domestic open educational platforms and courses posted on them, the main established advantages and disadvantages of MOOCs were identified. These advantages include: accessibility; exclusivity of educational material; simplicity of the educational model; subject diversity of online courses; shortness; educational autonomy, etc., and the disadvantages are the following: language barriers, time constraints and the cost of courses on leading educational platforms; lack of individualization, and, as a result, not enough personal contact with the teacher; low motivation to complete the course on time; lack of certificate equivalence. There is also an extremely low level of awareness among students on the issue of online courses. Conclusion. As a result of the study, the authors concluded that, despite the obvious advantages of using MOOCs in the process of teaching a foreign language, it is impossible to completely replace the classroom load with an online course due to organizational difficulties.
Kopylova et al. (Fri,) studied this question.