ANALYSIS OF ONLINE PLATFORMS AND TOOLS TO GET STARTED WITH DISTANCE AND BLENDED LEARNING

Аннотация

Nowadays, the demand for distance and blended learning is increasing, and this leads to the problem of choosing the right platform for launching this approach in education. This article aims to analyze the existing platforms and identify the strengths and weaknesses of each system. It also provides an analysis of all existing systems to identify the most convenient among all platforms. KEYWORDS: Distance learning, blended learning, platforms, tools, LMS. INTRODUCTION world. Modern information technologies make the educational process more dynamic The development of information and and interactive. Every year more and more communication technologies has led to the software is created for use in education. All introduction of e-learning into the these tools allow not only to optimize educational process. Information and teachers' lesson time, but also to partially communication technologies provide automate the review of work and the education with the opportunity to meet preparation of teaching materials. global development trends and adapt to the rapidly changing conditions of the modern “ANALYSIS OF ONLINE PLATFORMS AND TOOLS TO GET STARTED WITH DISTANCE AND BLENDED LEARNING” P age 6 | 6 Due to the fact that blended learning involves content and tools for organizing educational a combination of the work of the classroom activities. teacher and the use of information It is worth considering which educational technology to organize online learning both in platform to use, since there are now a large and out of the classroom, the teacher must number of them. Choosing the most have a wide range of tools to make this form convenient and technically suitable platform as possible effective implementation of for one’s course is quite simple. Each learning. platform is accompanied by a description of Firstly, a more appropriate model should be features and capabilities. Let's analyze some chosen. After selecting a model, it must be of the most popular online platforms and determined which tools, educational tools suitable for teaching English in platforms and services will be used to vocational education institutions. implement blended learning technology. Let's start the analysis with the educational Various types of LMS and online services can online platform Edmodo (Figure 1), which is be used when implementing blended learning an educational and social network for models: teachers, schoolchildren and their parents. • learning management systems (e.g, Edmodo allows teachers to create groups Edmodo, Moodle, Google Class, etc.); where they can share materials, distribute assignments, conduct tests, and manage • digital collections of educational objects communication with students, colleagues, • online training courses and parents. Edmodo has a user-friendly interface with lots of interactive services and • tools for creating and publishing content a wide range of third-party apps like Google and learning objects Drive and Microsoft Office. The program is • tools for communication and feedback (e.g., free, requires only registration, but it also Skype, Google chat, social networks, etc.); offers premium services. Al-Kathiri (2015) indicated that a combination of traditional • collaborative tools (e.g., Google Docs, Word teaching and Edmodo online classroom is a Online, etc.); significantly effective factor toward English • tools for planning educational activities learning.[2] A teacher can monitor students’ (electronic journals, organizers) [1] activities in Edmodo. This means that teachers can check how much time is spent When designing blended learning content, it on the learning process, how often a student is possible to use ready-made digital visits the platform, what they are interested resources as well as independently created in and what comments or questions they ones. However, it is preferable to choose post.[3] complex resources that combine educational “ANALYSIS OF ONLINE PLATFORMS AND TOOLS TO GET STARTED WITH DISTANCE AND BLENDED LEARNING” P age 7 | 6 Figure 1. Edmodo homepage The online platform Moodle (Figure 2) is one created in Moodle. The time spent on of the most popular educational platforms for completing the tasks by students is taken into creating online courses. To start using it, a account. The teacher has the opportunity to teacher needs to register and customize the comment on the results and leave feedback. course: set the duration and access to the Su (2006) concludes that Moodle is a free course. In this system it is allowed to provide online course management system (CMS) educational material in various formats: video that is particularly well suited for language lectures, audio, text documents, images. teaching. It contains many useful and user- Additionally, surveys, tests, glossaries, friendly tools for creating and running the questionnaires and small databases can be courses. [4] Figure 2. Moodle homepage “ANALYSIS OF ONLINE PLATFORMS AND TOOLS TO GET STARTED WITH DISTANCE AN