Requirements and principles of designing online course for students with disabilities in the modern digital space of the university: theoretical analysis

Introduction. In the present, the issues of digitalization of education continue to form the agenda of leading international organizations (UN, UNESCO). It is recognized that the use of digital technologies makes it possible to diversify the means of involvement in the learning process, taking into account existing differences in individual educational needs. It was also noted that there is still a problem of the lack of clear guidelines for the implementation of technologies in practice, which determines the relevance of issues of the quality of digital content in terms of its accessibility, compliance with various educational needs, including those with disabilities. The purpose of this article is to identify the key requirements and principles for designing an online course for students with disabilities in the modern digital space of the university. Materials and methods. Methods of analysis, synthesis, extrapolation, and document analysis were used in the study. The systematic approach allowed us to formulate an important methodological principle of the relationship between the requirements and conditions put forward for the design of online courses for students of different groups with disabilities. To achieve this goal, we relied on the regulatory framework of the Russian Federation on the accessibility and quality of the digital educational environment for people with disabilities, data from the NAFI analytical center on the assessment of the level of digital competencies for the period from 2018 to 2022. As one of the examples, we relied on a study conducted among students and graduates with disabilities in a number of universities in the Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk and Kurgan regions. Results. Debatable issues in the light of the digitalization of the university still remain: the predominantly formal nature of the creation of digital environments, their demand in the educational space, taking into account the individual needs of target groups, etc. The research problem consists in explication of general approaches and requirements, principles of designing online courses for students with disabilities in the context of the development of the modern digital space of the university, which will allow creating (correcting) a universal constructor of such an educational resource that ensures the implementation of the educational route for students inclusively. The article shows that when designing an online course, the following conditions must be taken into account: technological, psychological and pedagogical, organizational and methodological. Of course, special attention should be paid to providing methodological requirements for the development of content by users with hearing and vision impairments. This should be reflected in the structure of the organization of educational content. It is necessary to take into account the psychological and pedagogical features of such a contingent of users. Conclusion. We believe that the immediate tasks in designing online courses for students with disabilities at the university, taking into account the digitalization of the educational space of the university, will be: conceptualization of the digital educational space of the university, taking into account the principles of universal design; regulatory and legal support of the process of integrating online resources into the educational environment of the university; methodological support and content filling.