Remote learning during the war: challenges for higher education in Ukraine

Abstract

This study analyses the challenges the higher education of Ukraine, university students and teachers face in wartime, as well as considers accessibility and effectiveness of remote learning. This is done by examining the National University of Food Technologies and its remote learning experience due to the Russia's aggression in February, 2022. While many universities have similar problems nowadays, every institution has its own unique ones (location of education agents; possibility for teachers to create new courses and/or improve the existing ones downloading the materials and tests; access to resources for the students; access to academic support). Despite the fact that the National University of Food Technologies has already had its own distance platform since 2015-2016 and have been constantly improving it the last 2-3 years especially because of Covid pandemic-2020, the wartime caused a lot of problems preventing access for the students to get a quality education. The research considers the benefits offered by remote learning for the students and teachers, and difficulties connected with low accessibility and even impossibility for both educational agents to continue educational process. On the one hand, study progress is not really feasible or sustainable when students live in situations of war or occupation. On the other hand, the article demonstrates that remote learning is capable of delivering the educational goals of the university to the areas affected by the war.

The Role of Higher Education for Ensuring National Security in Ukraine

“…The results demonstrated that higher education in Ukraine is facing numerous challenges during war, impacting both access to and the quality of education. Thus, it was found that the challenges refer to damaged educational infrastructure, loss of human resources due to displacement or migration (Bondarenko, 2022) and lacking of educational opportunities since many children and young people are forced to leave school to support their families or due to safety concerns (Galynska & Bilous, 2022). Moreover, the experience of war has a profound impact on the mental health of students and teachers, affecting their ability to learn and teach effectively (Seleznova et al, 2023), and it is very important to mention that there are no known long-term side effects of war on the system of higher education and the level of training of students in particular.…”

“…Young people may be in dangerous conditions or in a forced evacuation, where learning is quite difficult. Obviously, educators frequently raise the question of educational losses that means loss of knowledge and skills, academic regression due to certain interruptions in the education of a particular student (Galynska & Bilous, 2022;Iliichuk, 2023).…”

“…The implementation of innovative teaching technologies in higher education plays an important role in enhancing national security since they contribute to efficiency of educational process resulted in preparing skilled professionals able to address emerging challenges. The findings show that simulation-based learning (Maistrenko et al, 2020), e-learning (Galynska & Bilous, 2022), machine learning and AI-based tools (Chmyr & Bhinder, 2023) have a special place in current higher education and demonstrate the amazing results in formation of professional competencies. The respondents indicated that innovative teaching technologies enable the development of specialized programs addressing the growing threats in the modern world.…”

“…Budnyk, Kushniruk, Tsybulko, Shevchenko, Fomin, & Konovalchuk (2022) insist that emergencies affect higher education and facilitate the modernization of methodological framework through implementation of innovative teaching technologies. Other tendencies include extensive use of e-learning (Galynska & Bilous, 2022;Sherman et al, 2022), artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (Chmyr & Bhinder, 2023).…”

“…The established system ensures the continuity of education (Hurtt et al, 2023), provides psychological and social support for individuals affected by the trauma of war (Kot & Lytvychenko, 2022), creates a sense of normality, routine, and social interaction for both pedagogical staff and students (Taka, 2023). Galynska & Bilous (2022) state that education serve as emergency response efforts during war providing immediate and essential knowledge and skills for affected populations, including displaced individuals. According to Hsieh (2020), education contributes to preserving cultural identity and heritage during times of war incorporating cultural elements into the curriculum.…”