Online Education: Challenges and Opportunities for Developing Key Competencies of the 21st Century During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This paper presents the results of the study of the difficulties and opportunities of online education. COVID19 has accelerated technological advances in higher education and has opened up a number of challenges. The solution of these problems is necessary for the effective development of key competencies of the XXI in the online format. The authors present the results of a survey of students from 28 universities of the Russian Federation about the difficulties and opportunities of the online format learning. The results of the study show a high level of respondents' dissatisfaction with the quality of online educational services. In addition, a third of the respondents note the technological personal unpreparedness for the transition of education to the online format. Regarding the possibilities of supra-professional competencies, it can be noted that the forced transition to the online learning mode contributed to the development of digital competencies and somewhat reduced the opportunities for the development of social and emotional competencies. The paper notes that there are pros and cons of online learning and the great prospects of education in a digital educational environment.