On 20-22 June, the International Forum of Educators and Employers “Distance Education of the Future: Challenges and Perspectives” was held at Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University and beyond in Zoom format.
The forum was dedicated to identifying the main challenges and ways to solve them in the implementation of distance education in the professional training of higher education students.
The forum was held within the framework of the international project Erasmus+ KA2 DEFEP (“Distance Education of the Future: EU Best Practices in Response to the Demands of Modern Higher Education Seekers and Labour Market”), which is implemented with the financial support of the European Union.
The forum was held in a hybrid format. Some participants were involved in the work of the forum directly at the premises of Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University, while some academic staff and management of HEIs, higher education students, representatives of government and local authorities, NGOs and businesses from all over Ukraine and the world joined the Zoom conference.
On Tuesday, 20 June, the forum began with welcome speeches. Leonid Klymenko, Rector of Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University, opened the forum with his salutatory greeting.
On the first day of the forum, the following extremely important issues were discussed in the format of a plenary session and panel discussions: state policy of higher education development under the influence of digital transformations; organisation of the educational process in vocational and higher education institutions under martial law; violation of academic integrity; impact of CERGE-EI educational projects on the quality of distance education in Central and Eastern Europe; marketing communication support for distance education in Ukraine, the EU and the world; trends in the development of distance education; and more.
On the second day, the panel discussion focused on the best practices of non-formal digital education and integration with higher education institutions, as well as international distance learning projects became an important part of the discussion.
The final panel discussion on 22 June was attended by employers, namely representatives of the most successful IT and banking companies, such as EPAM, DTEK Academy, Agrianalytica LLC, and PrivatBank JSC CB. Employers were involved in discussing the specifics of corporate distance education and best practice cases from the business sector.
At the end of the forum, a facilitated session on design thinking “Creative Ideas for Better Distance Education Solutions” was held, during which all forum participants sought to solve the main challenge: “How can higher education institutions prepare specialists who will meet the needs of employers under martial law?”
Today, it is increasingly important for modern universities to be platforms for open communication and exchange of ideas, while maintaining all their academic competences. New technologies have not only radically changed the way people live, they have also had a significant impact on education. One of the consequences of this is the rapid growth in the popularity of distance education. The function and format of education is changing, and the organisation of the learning process must also change, which will help build an ecosystem of digital solutions in the education sector and ensure high-quality training of future competitive specialists.
Forum Agenda
Recording of the broadcast on YouTube