'This is a Stress but We Manage to Do Well' - Rector Koksharov

12:25, April 15, 2020

Journalists from Znak.com asked the rector about university life during distance learning and quarantine

Ural Federal University (UrFU), which is home to more than 35,000 students, has completely switched to distance learning due to restrictive measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19). The Rector of UrFU Victor Koksharov talked to us about distance learning, the classes that cannot be transferred online, and the difficulties teachers and students are facing during the quarantine measures.

- Was the Ural Federal University prepared for the transition to distance learning? How did this decision affect the learning process?

- All 35,194 students of UrFU have now been transferred to distance learning. It’s a long time since digitalization processes have been introduced at the university, we are actively engaged in the creation of learning management systems, online courses, electronic educational resources, but it cannot be said that all materials for all courses were fully prepared for remote work. The transition to a new training format on such a large scale does not happen in one click – this is a stressful process, but so far everything is going well.

I would also like to note that since the beginning of distance learning, we have received more than 7,000 applications to access our online courses from the students of other universities.

Besides, the international research and methodological center of the Ural Federal University, which provides courses for teachers of other universities, has switched to the remote work format. Currently, it provides online materials for teaching mathematics, computer science, and digital technology. Thus all interested teachers can take distance training in these fields at our university.

- How was the training of students from China organized earlier in 2020? The media reported that they were planned to transfer to distance learning already at that time?

- Yes exactly. Since January, we have transferred all UrFU students from China to distance learning. Teachers prepared assignments and sent them to students online, and the students sent their homework back. This allowed us to figure out the proper ways for distance education technology, which is now used by all students.

- Which platforms are used to implement the distance learning now? What difficulties arise in the process?

- There are several platforms. The first one is the Learning Management System (LMS). As part of this system, we use two services: Moodle and HyperMethod. Teachers can post lectures, assignments for students, collect feedback and check homework.

The classes as such are held in different forms convenient for professors and students. Many teachers prefer webinars. They use the systems they are used to, or the ones they like best. Now many people use Microsoft Teams, it is free for a pandemic. The more so that we have a university license from Microsoft. Someone uses Zoom, someone uses the BigBlueButton webinar system that is built into the Moodle. This system is free.

Also, Ural Federal University offers online courses on the national platform of open education, available both to home students and the students of other universities. Apart from that, UrFU has its own openedu.urfu.ru educational platform, which also hosts online courses that are used for distance learning.

- What are the pros and cons of distance learning?

The plus is that the students can still receive education while sitting comfortably at home. If the you did not understand something during the webinar, you can watch and listen to the lecture over again, re-read all the materials, etc. Some tasks given by teachers are checked automatically, which is also very convenient. Thanks to that, professors spend less time on this part of the work. Plus, teachers are becoming more accessible to students: they answer questions instantly in messengers and via social networks.

The big minus for students is that it takes a great ton of self-organization and patience to study well from home. The university now does everything in order to organize the educational process for students, the result of training is largely the responsibility of the students themselves. The second drawback is that all classes cannot be conducted in a remote format. For example, this cannot be arranged for practical exercises and laboratory works.

- Given the difficulties you described, does it affect the quality of education?

- If distance learning is organized properly, the quality does not decrease. Nonetheless, it takes more investment on equipment, on the organization of webinars and other similar things for the university to organize training compatible to the offline format.

Labor costs in distance education are incomparably high. Faculty members would have to put completely different skills into their work in the new reality.

- How will distance education be developed in the future when the quarantine is over?

- Surely, there is no reason to leave things as they are now, as the entire university is transferred into distance learning format. We consider distance learning just one pawn in the array of educational technologies. For example, in some specialties, you can have online lectures, and after them the students may come to the university to perform practical tasks. Over the next three years, 40% of the workload will be transferred to distance form. Actually, even without the quarantine caused by the pandemic, this year 20% of university classes would have been done online.

For us, this situation is a serious challenge. But this is also a good opportunity to make a breakthrough in the digital transformation of the university. Moreover, the program of the digital model involves not only the digitalization of UrFU, but also the subsequent spread of this model of activity to other universities.