Assessment of the Impact of the Pandemic on Learning Processes

Elena Shirinkina

and Alexander Groshev

Surgut State University, Surgut, Russia

Keywords: Educational Technologies, Educational Trends, Pandemic, New Challenges, Business Trainings, Companies.

Abstract: The relevance of the study is determined by the fact that the pandemic and the quarantine associated with it

forced all participants within the educational sphere to immerse themselves into the development and

application of modern approaches and technologies, to feel how it is possible to offer a completely different

training and learning experience online, while maintaining the education quality. The study investigates the

ways and methods of organizing and conducting training in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The

purpose of the study is to assess the impact of the pandemic on business training processes. The empirical

basis of the study is analytical research conducted by BBC, Learning Solutions, Foswa, McKinsey,

Sberbank’s «Investment to the Future». The research analyzes the state of educational technologies before

and during the pandemic. This issue has not been studied in economics before. Global educational trends with

an emphasis on the current demands of society are presented. The challenges that arose as a result of the

pandemic are described. The reactions of corporate sector institutions to the new training regime are analyzed.

The practical significance of the research results is provided by the fact that it will allow managers and

specialists of corporate universities, talent development departments, educational solution providers, as well

as a wide audience of education professionals to develop business training strategies for the formation of

necessary skills in a new reality.

1 INTRODUCTION

For many years, we have been hearing from various

sources that we live in a VUCA world and must be

prepared for its challenges: volatility, uncertainty,

complexity and ambiguity. In 2020, due to the

coronavirus pandemic (Reznik, Isralowitz, Gritsenko,

Konstantinov, Khamenka, 2020), all countries

instantly found themselves in these realities, feeling

the challenges and realizing their unreadiness for

them. The main question was: "What do we need to

successfully exist and interact in the conditions of a

new normal?" According to the participants of the

educational sphere, one of the key problems was the

search for a new balance in the changed way of

interaction between the teacher and the student, as

well as the issue of organizing the distant learning

process, which will take into account the expectations

and requirements of all parties.

In the conditions of the pandemic, all spheres of

education in the world faced difficulties and an

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6933-1903

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9694-5601

instant reaction was required from everyone in order

to adapt to the new conditions of the education

organization and the transition to a distance learning

format. Corporations reacted as quickly as possible to

this force majeure situation and changed working

conditions, implemented measures and practices

aimed at reducing the spread of coronavirus infection,

maintaining the effective work of employees and

business training processes (Saif, Ruan, Obrenovic,

2021).

New life circumstances have also resulted in the

need of many corporate employees for acquiring new

knowledge and skills. As a result, the demand for

corporate training has increased among employees,

which has led to an expansion of the range of

educational services provided by corporations. This

resulted in programs and courses of advanced training

and retraining, developed and implemented by

companies for internal and external users (Novelli,

Biancolella, Mehrian-Shai, Erickson, Godri Pollitt,

Vasiliou, Watt, Reichardt, 2020).

Shirinkina, E. and Groshev, A.

Assessment of the Impact of the Pandemic on Learning Processes.

DOI: 10.5220/0011110000003439

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference "COVID-19: Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals" (RTCOV 2021), pages 23-28

ISBN: 978-989-758-617-0

In this regard, the main hypothesis of the study is

whether there is an impact of the pandemic, as a new

reality, on the processes of business training of

companies.

It is worth starting by viewing the overall picture,

which quantitatively reflects the transition of

corporate and other training to a distance format.

2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Education and training industry was familiar with

such approaches and technologies before the

pandemic. But their application was uneven. For

example, in Russia, innovative educational

technologies were most noticeably used in the

segment of additional vocational education, while

higher education institutions focused on classical

learning models.

The pandemic and the quarantine associated with

it forced all participants within the educational sphere

to immerse themselves into the development and

application of modern approaches and technologies,

to feel how it is possible to offer a completely

different educational experience online, while

maintaining the quality of education (Francesco,

2019). Of course, not every goal was reached. It

happened due to the emphasis on digital technologies,

and not the methodology for developing training

programs. But it can be rightfully stated that such an

experience made everyone see which approaches and

technologies work, and which do not.

Today, the possession of educational technologies

is an advantage that allows us to develop more

effective and high-quality training solutions in order

to apply knowledge in practice (Ukolova and

Novikova, 2020). Unfortunately, in open sources,

educational technologies are mistakenly equated with

online courses and educational applications, so we

propose to understand the basic definition.

Educational technologies (EduTech) as a

combination of the terms "education" and

"technology" is a set of tools, technologies and

approaches used in teaching. They allow to improve

the educational process and bring it to a more

advanced and personalized level, to make it more

effective and exciting for the student. They include,

but are not limited to, the following components:

1. Approaches to the organization of training,

which include experimential, personalized, social,

and continuous learning.

2. Technologies to increase motivation and

involvement in learning, for example, microlearning,

gamification, etc.

3. Synchronous and asynchronous formats of

training solutions, such as face-to-face lectures,

webinars, massive open online courses (MOOCs),

VR and AR simulations, interactive distance classes

(virtual classes), e-courses with interactive

simulators, etc.

4. Tools for working on educational content, as

well as tools for its implementation in the learning

process. These include applications for creating e-

courses (Articulate Storyline, Adobe Captivate, etc.),

for orginizing webinars (Zoom, Google Meet, etc.),

for managing learning work (Granatum Solutions,

Microsoft Teams, etc.), for implementing surveys

(Kahoot, Socrative, etc.), for collaboration (G Suite,

Confluence, etc.), as well as learning management

systems (LMS) (Epigram, 2020).

Despite the fact that EduTech is traditionally

associated with online formats, its methods and

approaches are also applicable for face-to-face

training. The educational process consists not only of

creating video tutorials or lectures. It involves

constant feedback from the teacher, practical

development of skills and their transfer to practice, as

well as other interactive processes.

The coronavirus has become a powerful impetus

for the development of the entire EduTech market, the

economic role of which has increased significantly.

The global EduTech market in 2019 was 2.7% of

the global education market, and its volume by 2025

was estimated at $241 billion (average annual growth

of 13.1%). It is expected that due to the coronavirus

pandemic, the market volume will increase 2.5 times:

the average annual growth will be 16.3%, as a result

of which it will reach $404 billion in total global

spending by 2025 (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Assessment of the global educational technology

market, billion dollars.

163

227

268

295

327

365

404

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025

годы

USD billion

RTCOV 2021 - II International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference " COVID-19: Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals

(RTCOV )

The market share will accordingly increase to

5.2% of the global education market. The volume of

the Russian educational technology market in 2019

was estimated at 45-50 billion rubles. Before the

pandemic, it was expected that by 2020 it would

overcome the mark of 55-60 billion rubles. However,

by new estimations, an increase of up to 70 billion

rubles is quite possible.

Among the drivers contributing to the accelerated

growth of the EduTech market, the following can be

distinguished:

1. Development of digital infrastructure in

secondary and higher education institutions:

introduction of learning management systems and

data storage, acquisition of tools for the development

of training programs in a remote format.

2. The growing demand for B2C training and

retraining programs.

3. Due to the transition to distance learning

formats, students' preferences regarding technologies

that support learning approaches are changing.

Among them are mobile, gaming, adaptive learning,

etc.

These drivers are prerequisites for the

development of educational markets. Startups and

educational institutions that solve the problems of

accessibility of mass education, reduce inequality by

offering non-standard approaches to learning, and

also become globally successful, allowing everyone

to acquire in-demand professions.

According to The Learning Guild, which

surveyed more than 500 respondents of the largest

American and Canadian companies (Harvard

Business Publishing Education, 2020), at least 54%

of all training solutions in 2019 were implemented

exclusively in face-to-face format and only 37% in

distance (see Table 1).

Table 1: Percentage of companies that switched to remote

synchronous training, %.

Implementatio

n of programs

in a

synchronous

remote format

2019

March-

May

2020

Second

half

2020

2021

2022

and

further

Everything 4 49 44 20 17

Most 16 16 26 45 45

Partiall

20 16 19 23 28

A little 37 11 9 10 7

Absent 23 8 2 3 3

Total number

of respondents

(n)

100%

(n =

121)

100%

(n =

122)

100%

(n =

121)

100%

(n =

115)

100%

(n =

110)

It is obvious that during the pandemic there was a

trend for an emergency transfer of training to online

and by March 2020, 49% of respondents in the

departments of training and development indicated

that programs were conducted in a synchronous

remote format.

Nevertheless, according to the estimates of the

international association of corporate training

Unicon, only 30% of corporate training programs in

the world managed to be fully converted to a distance

format, while the rest were either suspended or

completely canceled. The trend towards suspending

training programs (33% of respondents answered) is

also noted by IE University, which from March to

May 2020 interviewed at least 100 heads of training

departments, including EY, McKinsey, Sberbank

Corporate University and others (McKinsey, 2020).

For example, Sberbank Corporate University has

successfully converted more than 50 training

programs into a distance format. The NLMK Group

Corporate University has converted 15 educational

solutions (of various contents for managers of

different levels) into an online format, in particular

programs for the development of coaching skills and

level programs. The reactions of the corporate sector

to the challenges and barriers faced as a result of the

transition to a new format and training regime will be

demonstrated below.

Having a multi-aspect nature, this challenge has

affected both technical and methodological aspects of

the training process. The responses and proposed

solutions relate to the introduction by corporations of

new technical, methodological, communication, and

other approaches, techniques, and tools aimed at

maintaining an effective educational process, which

is primarily characterized by a high level of

satisfaction of all participants.

Despite the fact that in the conditions of

quarantine, organizations initially brought all the

training content to the online broadcast, a trend was

gradually outlined for the use of other methods.

Synchronous and asynchronous training formats were

combined, software solutions were introduced with a

high level of broadcast quality and interactive

elements, as well as with the opportunity to

participate in group discussions.

Among the most popular tools for organizing

synchronous distance learning in organizations,

Zoom can be singled out, which before the pandemic

was considered as a corporate service for creating

video and audio calls via the Internet. The free

version of the service allowed you to create group

conferences lasting up to 40 minutes, which could be

joined by up to 100 people.

Assessment of the Impact of the Pandemic on Learning Processes

During the pandemic, the service quickly adapted

to the needs of the field of education and allowed

organizing a number of activities:

- online lectures;

- discussions (synchronous and asynchronous) in

small groups;

- work on group projects in synchronous and

asynchronous formats and their further protection.

Later, other alternative tools were used, such as

Microsoft Teams.

This challenge has affected the educational

request of both corporate employees and other

recipients of educational services provided by the

corporate sector. The request was formed as a result

of the need to develop new skills and acquire new

knowledge. This led to an increase in the internal

corporate demand for training and the expansion of

the range of educational services offered to the

foreign market.

In addition to synchronous online training with

teachers during the pandemic, employees began to

devote more time to independent learning. For

example, the analytics of Sberbank Corporate

University portal the Virtual School led to the

following results (Figure 2).

Figure 2: The number of visitors to the Virtual School

among Sberbank Group employees.

The presented data indicate a twofold increase in

traffic, the average of which during the pandemic was

37,086 users per week (compared to 31 thousand

before quarantine). Moreover, the maximum peak

occurred in the third and fourth weeks after mass

transition to distance working format from March 16.

Currently, there is a decline in activity, but

nevertheless it still remains above the average by

18%.

A sharp rise in the attendance of educational

platforms is associated with a request for the

acquisition of new skills. For example, the pandemic

required managers to have control skills for the

remote work. The IE University survey confirms that

managing distributed teams has become a real

problem for managers, the demand for training in

these skills has grown (53% of respondents noted),

since the remote team needs the tasks that are set

differently. There is a need to switch to other

approaches in management, to track the process.

Psychological assistance and employee coaching

programs have also become in demand (18% of

respondents noted this). At the level of top

management, there was a request for the organization

of training programs for leadership training in times

of crisis (20% of respondents noted this) (BBC,

2020). At the employee level, the need to improve

technological, communication and digital skills has

increased.

The number of registrations for courses in the

Virtual School of Sberbank Corporate University in

the following directions is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: The number of registrations for courses in the

Virtual School of Sberbank Corporate University by

training programs.

According to the statistics of user training in the

Virtual School for Sberbank employees, there is a

threefold increase in interest in courses on the

development of soft skills, the request for digital

skills increased by 53%.

It is worth noting that the business has focused not

only on training its employees, but also on expanding

educational solutions in the foreign market. The

pandemic led to a wave of layoffs and the beginning

of the economic crisis, so for many people getting a

new profession or mastering additional skills was the

only way out of a difficult situation. Those who have

never studied online courses before, first of all,

became interested in the content that most educational

platforms have opened free access to.

25834

36660

48590

73635

73749

59082 58541

47900

33350

36569

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

80000

people

44357

19084

19149

67979

59216

2105

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

80000

Digital skills Soft skills Professional

skills

number of registrations, units

12.2019-02.2020 03.2020-05.2020

RTCOV 2021 - II International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference " COVID-19: Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals

(RTCOV )

The Virtual School of Sberbank Corporate

University has opened free access to its materials to

all interested users with the possibility of obtaining

certificates after successful completion of training. 16

e-courses were made publicly available, including

solutions on digital skills, personal effectiveness and

fundamentals of macroeconomics. According to the

results of the month of the portal, the percentage of

course completions ranged from 8 to 60%. In most

cases, the completion of the course depends on two

factors: the duration of the course and the complexity

of the subject. Short and relatively simple courses

with minimal barriers in the form of verification tests

are easier to complete. Long courses with complex

topics, in which control tests were required, were

completed less often. Among the users of the open

"Virtual School", the leaders in the number of

registered users (more than 1000 registrations) were

the courses:

- Macroeconomics (basic course).

- Big data.

- Creativity and innovation.

- Fundamentals of behavioral economics and

neuromarketing.

- The phenomenon of leadership.

The shortage of knowledge and skills among

employees of many companies revealed by the

pandemic has stimulated the business sector to initiate

courses and programs of advanced training and

retraining that will help employees to better cope with

work in new conditions.

Coursera for Business, an educational platform

which is connected to by more than 2,000 companies

around the world, noted that in 2020, the interest of

companies in programs that teach business digital

skills has significantly increased. It means that as a

result of the coronavirus and the challenges that have

arisen, companies have begun to pay 12 times more

attention to training employees in the sphere of digital

technologies (Hamza, Badary, Elmazar, 2021).

The corporate educational sector of Russia, in

particular Sberbank Corporate University and the

NLMK Group Corporate University, has also been

actively working on the development and

implementation of advanced training and retraining

courses and programs aimed at teaching digital

literacy to employees of both their own and other

organizations. Below are two cases of Sberbank

Corporate University on teaching digital literacy to

teachers of partner universities of the bank and recent

graduates of universities.

3 RESEARCH RESULTS

The pandemic has accelerated the process of

providing educational services and solutions in a

remote format, which was started earlier. The

transition to a new format of work and interaction

with both employees and recipients of educational

services affected most companies in the Russian and

international arena. Despite the initial organization of

the educational process by the companies, preferably

in a synchronous format, the transfer to an

asynchronous learning format was gradually carried

out. This was facilitated by the introduction of various

educational technologies and tools that can support

distance education.

The introduction of these practices and the use of

the necessary electronic tools helped to improve the

motivation of students and maximized practice-

oriented learning.

Discussion of the results of the study.

The epidemic stimulates the construction of new

professional collaborations. The lack of knowledge

among some and the transfer of knowledge to others

is what has helped many people and organizations to

continue to work effectively in the new realities.

Among such collaborations, it is possible to note the

support provided by universities to each other, as well

as the support of higher educational institutions and

individual groups by educational corporations at both

the world and Russian levels. The planned trend of

creating partner programs will certainly continue to

develop, as all parties involved in the partnership

receive certain benefits.

4 CONCLUSIONS

1. The author studies the ways and methods of

organizing and conducting training in the context of

the global COVID-19 epidemic, analyzes the state of

educational technologies before and during the

pandemic, which is a new and unexplored issue in

economics.

2. The impact of the pandemic, as a new reality,

on the business learning processes was assessed on

the basis of analytical research conducted by BBC,

Learning Solutions, Foswa, McKinsey, Sberbank’s

“Investment to the Future”.

3. The author presents global educational trends

with an emphasis on the current demands of society;

describes the challenges that have arisen as a result of

the pandemic; analyzes the reactions of corporate

sector institutions to the new training regime.

Assessment of the Impact of the Pandemic on Learning Processes

The practical significance of the research results

is provided by the fact that it will allow managers and

specialists of corporate universities, talent

development departments, educational solution

providers, as well as a wide audience of education

professionals to develop business training strategies

for the formation of necessary skills in a new reality.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The article contains the results of research conducted

as part of the state mission of the Khanta-Mansi

Autonomous Region - Ugra.

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RTCOV 2021 - II International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference " COVID-19: Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals

(RTCOV )