The Potential of Higher Education Digitalization in Central and Eastern

Europe

Anastasiia Simakhova

1 a

and Artem Artyukhov

2 b

National Aviation University, 1 Liubomyra Huzara Ave., Kyiv, 03058, Ukraine

Sumy State University, 2 Rymskogo-Korsakova Str., Sumy, 40007, Ukraine

Keywords:

Digitization, Global Indicators, Grouping, SWOT Analysis, Pandemic, War.

Abstract:

Digital has penetrated into all spheres of life. Since 2020, due to the pandemic, all countries around the

world have started using online learning. The digitalization of higher education during the war in Ukraine

is especially important, because avoided the collapse of the educational system. The aim of the article is to

highlight the potential of higher education digitization in Eastern and Central Europe. To achieve the goal

of the article, the following tasks were set: to study the theoretical basis of the digitization of education,

to analyze the trends and problems of the higher education digitalization in Central and Eastern Europe, to

develop recommendations for improving the higher education digitization. The article analyzed the ranks

of the Network Readiness Index, Digital Skills Gap Index (DSGI), and IMD World Digital Competitiveness

Ranking in terms of technological readiness of universities and digital skills of academic teachers and students.

The article offers a case study of the Ukrainian university for the implementation of an e-learning environment

and new instruments of e-learning during the war in Ukraine. The authors grouped countries of Central and

Eastern Europe according to their potential for higher education digitalization. For these groups of countries,

the authors identiﬁed speciﬁc criteria. SWOT analysis of the higher education digitalization was conducted

for the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

1 INTRODUCTION

Digital transformation involves the transformation of

all areas of public life under the inﬂuence of ad-

vanced innovative information and communication

technologies (ICT), including in the education sys-

tem, which is the foundation of an innovative econ-

omy and shapes its human potential. This determines

the relevance of accelerating the digital transforma-

tion of education in the countries of Central and East-

ern Europe. The digital transformation of education is

necessary to ensure that the educational process meets

the needs of the labor market, increases the level of

participation in these processes of educational institu-

tions of all levels and other organizations of the ed-

ucational system, as well as scientists, managers and

specialists of government agencies, representatives of

the private sector of business.

The huge potential of digitalization for higher ed-

ucation is that online platforms, online courses, on-

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7553-4531

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1112-6891

line universities can be used in the face of global chal-

lenges. First of all, these are pandemics, when social

contacts need to be reduced, and war, when there are

many refugees, the territorial connection of students

with their university is lost. Especially in the current

war between Ukraine and Russia, the issue of effec-

tive use of the potential of digitalization of higher edu-

cation is relevant, given the large number of Ukrainian

refugees (including students) in neighboring Eastern

and Central Europe.

The aim of the article is to highlight the potential

of higher education digitization in Easternand Central

Europe. The object of the research is the digitization

of higher education. The subject of the research is the

potential of higher education digitization in Eastern

and Central Europe.

The scientiﬁc novelty of the research is the group-

ing of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe

according to their potential of higher education dig-

italization. The practical signiﬁcance of the study is

that the results of the article can be used during the

war in Ukraine, when hundreds of thousands of en-

trants and students leave the country for Central and

542

Simakhova, A. and Artyukhov, A.

The Potential of Higher Education Digitalization in Central and Eastern Europe.

DOI: 10.5220/0012065900003431

In Proceedings of the 2nd Myroslav I. Zhaldak Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology (AET 2021), pages 542-553

ISBN: 978-989-758-662-0

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Eastern Europe.

The research methods used in the article include

literature analysis (a review of research to date in

the ﬁeld of higher education digitalization) and tax-

onomic methods used to determine the development

and potential of higher education digitalization in the

countries of Central and Eastern Europe, according

to the ranks of the Network Readiness Index, Digital

Skills Gap Index, and IMD World Digital Competi-

tiveness Ranking in terms of technological readiness

of universities, academic teachers and students for on-

line education, as well as the method of SWOT anal-

ysis (according to the higher education digitalization

in Central and Eastern Europe).

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

The VOSViewer and SciVal tools were used to con-

duct a brief bibliometric analysis on the re quest “dig-

italization of education”. The array of publications

for analysis was obtained from the Scopus database

(https://www.scopus.com/).

Bibliometric analysis using the VOSViewer tool

(base for analysis – 1408 articles for the period 2010-

2020) (ﬁgure 1) made it possible to identify the main

keywords that are most often found in scientiﬁc pa-

pers in connection with the direction of digitalization

in education. The cluster “education” is of great in-

terest for analysis, which links the terms “e-learning”,

“virtual reality”, “augmented reality”, “decision mak-

ing”, “sustainable development”, “economics” and,

in fact, demonstrates the model of university devel-

opment. in this direction. The relevance of consid-

ering this cluster is conﬁrmed by a number of do-

mestic works that are devoted to. in particular, dig-

italization of education in general (Yarovenko et al.,

2021), state regulation and management of the quality

of education (Vorontsova et al., 2020; Pavlenko et al.,

2020), ensuring the quality of education in subject

areas (Onopriienko et al., 2021; Lyeonov and Liuta,

2016), quality of education and sustainable develop-

ment goals (Artyukhov et al., 2021).

It should be noted that in the world the topic of

digitalization of education is gaining momentum, as

can be seen from the data in ﬁgure 2 (SciVal biblio-

metric analysis tool). However, the number of pub-

lications in comparison with other industries is in-

signiﬁcant, which conﬁrms the relevance of studying

various aspects of this direction.

Continuing the analysis, it is also necessary to ad-

dress the topics that are most often associated with the

request for digitalization of education (ﬁgure 3, Sci-

Val bibliometric analysis tool). The combination of

keywords shown in the ﬁgure that add up to topics (the

ﬁgure shows top-1% of topics by prominence, 2510

articles for the period 2011-2020 were used for anal-

ysis) leads the reader to the main promising (“break-

through”) directions of the development of the digital-

ization model of education. These areas can be taken

as general ones when creating a digitalization strategy

for the educational process at the university.

Thus, the data of bibliometric analysis provide a

basis for ﬁnding optimal solutions for the digitaliza-

tion of education in the region, which is studied in this

work.

With regard to scientiﬁc papers on the digitaliza-

tion of education, it is worth paying attention to the

research of such authors. The problem of using digi-

tal technologies in education was studied by Hender-

son et al. (Henderson et al., 2017), Turuk (Turuk,

2021), Pettersson (Pettersson, 2021), Kafyulilo et al.

(Kafyulilo et al., 2016), Sahu (Sahu, 2020), Artino

(Artino, 2010), Alqurashi (Alqurashi, 2019). The au-

thors examined the prospects for the digitalization of

education, as well as the attitude of students towards

distance and online learning. This issue has become

esppesiallt important since beginning of COVID-19

pandemic.

The digitalization of education in Central and

Eastern Europe was dealt with by Chitez et al. (Chitez

et al., 2020), Rogobete and Chitez (Rogobete and

Chitez, 2019), Simakhova et al. (Simakhova et al.,

2022), Frances and Fleck (Frances and Fleck, 2020),

Zinovieva et al. (Zinovieva et al., 2021). These sci-

entists have studied the strategies, models, phases and

problems of digitalization of education in Central and

Eastern Europe.

Despite the mentioned studies, the issue of com-

paring, grouping and highlighting the potential of

higher education digitalization in Central and Eastern

Europe has not been resolved. This led to the rele-

vance of this article.

3 CASES OF HIGHER

EDUCATION DIGITALIZATION

IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN

EUROPE

The total quarantine and the abrupt conversion of ed-

ucational institutions to distance learning in March

2020 revealed some of the problems with the digi-

tization of education in the countries of Central and

Eastern Europe.

Since the beginning of the quarantine in March

2020, higher education institutions in Ukraine were

The Potential of Higher Education Digitalization in Central and Eastern Europe

543

Figure 1: Results of bibliometric analysis using VOSViewer tool.

Figure 2: Number of publications in the ﬁeld of digitaliza-

tion of education.

not fully prepared for online education, they used

only certain elements of online education. And on-

line teaching methods needed development and clear

regulation. During the interviews in May-June 2020,

most HEIs noted that their institutions used certain el-

ements of online education before the quarantine and

relied heavily on the Moodle system. In addition, the

development of online education had a speciﬁc date

and was a response to the demands of time or circum-

stance. Thus, some online courses were introduced

for students of the displaced HEI’s (HEI’s who were

resettled from Donetsk and Luhansk region (Stukalo

and Simakhova, 2020)).

Nevertheless, online training courses on digital

platforms, online courses, were established in the ﬁrst

month. In addition, the session, certiﬁcation and even

passing the state exams in the summer of 2020 were

held online.

It is worth noting that Ukrainian universities have

positive experience with online accreditation.

For two years now, the countries of Central and

Eastern Europe have had the experience of distance

learning at universities on various online platforms.

The European Commission has approved a Digital

Education Action Plan (2021-2027). It focuses on two

important areas (EU, 2020):

• promoting the development of an effective digi-

tal education system (infrastructure, communica-

tions, technical means, development of teaching

and teaching competencies, high-quality educa-

tional content);

• improving digital skills (basic digital skills from

an early age, combating misinformation, ensuring

equal access for women and girls to digital learn-

ing, etc.).

Distance education, new requirements for the ed-

ucational process have become a challenge for the ed-

ucational system. The pandemic has affected the ha-

bitual lifestyles of students, their families and teach-

ers, caused economic and social consequences, ex-

AET 2021 - Myroslav I. Zhaldak Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology

544

Figure 3: Top-1% of topics by prominence on digitalization of education.

acerbated a number of socio-economic problems, in-

cluding (MON, 2020):

• Equitable access to education (disparity in fam-

ilies’ provision of distance education resources

and unequal access to quality Internet);

• Provision of educational services for children

with special educational needs (children with cer-

tain pathologies are not able to receive educational

services at a distance);

• other socio-economic problems caused by the

pandemic.

In Ukraine at the beginning of 2020, 86% of

Ukrainian teachers did not have signiﬁcant experi-

ence in using online education tools, so universities

provided teaching to teach skills in using these tools,

creating or transferring courses online and organizing

learning in general – by issuing instructions, creat-

ing YouTube channels, Telegram, Facebook groups,

instructions for creating syllabus courses for online

learning, etc. (Nazarenko and Polishuk, 2021). But an

important problem was the increase in the workload

of teachers, including additional time to master the

skills of using digital technologies in education, cre-

ating or transferring their courses to distance educa-

tion systems, their regular updating, supplementation

and communication with students. It was noted that

the time spent on communication with students has

increased, as explaining the task in writing (or adding

a description to the online course) is longer than in

the classroom, as well as possible additional individ-

ual questions from students, and correspondence with

them also increases working hours of teachers. In ad-

dition, the reason for irregular working hours was the

need to develop classes in a new format and search for

additional materials (Nazarenko and Polishuk, 2021).

In Ukraine about half of Ukrainians are negative

about the introduction of distance education in con-

nection with the pandemic, 32% of citizens supported

this step. Categorically negative assessments are most

in the Southern (29%) and Eastern (28%) regions

(Razumkov Center, 2020).

The most signiﬁcant problems faced by Ukraini-

ans in connection with the transition to distance learn-

ing are the decline in children’s achievement (26%),

lack of attention of teachers to children’s learning

needs (22%) and technical problems: poor quality of

the Internet (21%) or lack of devices for online learn-

ing (19%). About 20-30% of citizens in small towns

The Potential of Higher Education Digitalization in Central and Eastern Europe

545

(up to 100 thousand inhabitants) report a lack of tech-

nical means (Razumkov Center, 2020).

Thus, the survey showed problems in the technical

equipment of participants in the educational process.

The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine

in May 2021 prepared a draft Concept of Digital

Transformation of Education and Science for the pe-

riod until 2026 (MON, 2021), which is a strategic

document with a state vision for the development of

these industries and solving the problems of their de-

velopment.

Digitalization of higher education in Poland is

more developed than in other Eastern European coun-

tries. Kozminski University, Lodz University of Tech-

nology, Warsaw School of Economics and the Jagiel-

lonian University are universities with different edu-

cational proﬁles combining exemplary use of digital

tools in scientiﬁc, administrative and research activi-

ties. All four universities were the ﬁrst in Poland to be

awarded in the Most Innovative Universities Program

and to receive the title of “Microsoft Cloud Univer-

sity” (BRIEF, 2021).

Despite the fact that Poland has more experience

in distance education than Ukraine and Belarus, some

important problems appeared in 2020 and 2021:

• insufﬁcient supply of computers to participants of

the educational process (97% of households have

at least one computer, but many of them have dif-

ﬁculties because computers have to be shared by

siblings, etc.) (Delmanowicz, 2021);

• reduced bandwidth of connection and limited

amount of monthly data transfer;

• lack of digital skills among teachers (85% of

teachers reported that they had very little experi-

ence in using the tools needed for distance educa-

tion, and only 5% of them described their skills in

this area as “very good”. Only 8% of students be-

lieve that teachers are very well prepared for on-

line learning, and 62% of them consider distance

learning ineffective) (Delmanowicz, 2021).

Thus, the problems of digitization of education in

Poland are similar to Ukrainian problems.

4 PROBLEMS OF

DIGITALIZATION OF HIGHER

EDUCATION IN CENTRAL AND

EASTERN EUROPE

The main problems of digitization of education in

Central and Eastern Europe:

• inadequate preparation of teachers for distance

education (use of methods of cyber-pedagogy,

work on online platforms, underdeveloped digital

skills);

• management problems (insufﬁciently developed

digital competences among representatives of the

management of educational institutions);

• lack of technical equipment in educational institu-

tions (virtual classrooms, electronic laboratories,

etc.);

• lack of quality Internet connection among individ-

ual participants in the educational process in con-

nection with their place of residence;

• insufﬁcient provision of individual computers for

all participants in the educational process;

• lack of methodological support for distance learn-

ing courses (workshops, lectures, etc.);

• increase the time load on teachers due to increased

online communications and development of on-

line materials for students.

As the above analysis has shown, the countries

of Central and Eastern Europe have similar problems

in providing digitalization of higher education. Let

us analyze the ranks of the Network Readiness In-

dex (NRI), Digital Skills Gap Index (DSGI), and IMD

World Digital Competitiveness Ranking in terms of

technological readiness of universities and digital

skills of teachers and students (table 1, 2, 3).

According to the NRI rating of the studied coun-

tries, Switzerland, Germany and Austria have the

highest positions – 5, 9 and 18, respectively. Also

in terms of technological support, Switzerland has a

higher position, and Germany – 7th. Thus, the Central

European high-income countries of the group have a

greater potential for digitalization of higher education

than the countries of Eastern Europe.

According to table 2, for DSGI Switzerland, Ger-

many and Austria also have the highest positions. Ro-

mania, Moldova and Ukraine have the lowest scores

of DSGI.

IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking rep-

resents 64 countries. Among the studied countries,

Moldova and Serbia are not represented in this report.

As for other Central and Eastern European countries,

Switzerland, Austria and Germany have the highest

rank. Croatia and Ukraine have the lowest rankings

according to this global indicator. The same situa-

tionthere is for the level of country preparedness to

exploit digital transformation.

Thus, the analysis of global indicators showed dif-

ferent readiness and potential for the introduction of

remote and digital technologies in higher education in

Central and Eastern Europe.

AET 2021 - Myroslav I. Zhaldak Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology

546

Table 1: Network Readiness Index ranks in 2020.

Countries

NRI

rank

NRI

score

Technology

(Pillar)

Rank

Technology Sub-pillars

Income group

Access Content

Future

Technology

Ukraine 64 49.93 62 79 46 53 Lower-middle-income

Poland 33 61.80 36 32 34 60 High-income

Bulgaria 46 55.03 43 50 33 78 Upper-middle-income

Czech Republic

28 66.33 26 33 20 32 High-income

Hungary 39 60.05 31 21 32 44 High-income

Moldova 71 47.09 74 56 66 126 Lower-middle-income

Romania 49 51.14 46 18 48 82 High-income

Slovakia 35 60.78 34 38 37 37 High-income

Austria 18 73.92 16 35 15 17 High-income

Croatia 43 55.94 52 49 38 118 High-income

Serbia 52 52.96 53 51 42 103 Upper-middle-income

Slovenia 27 66.58 29 24 26 35 High-income

Germany 9 77.48 7 27 10 3 High-income

Switzerland 5 80.41 1 4 1 7 High-income.

Table 2: Digital Skills Gap Index (DSGI) in 2021.

Countries Score Rank

Ukraine 4.8 69

Poland 5.6 42

Bulgaria 5.0 60

Czech Republic 5.5 44

Hungary 5.2 50

Moldova 4.7 73

Romania 4.7 74

Slovakia 5.1 52

Austria 6.5 21

Croatia 4.8 66

Serbia 4.8 64

Slovenia 5.7 40

Germany 7.1 14

Switzerland 7.2 11

5 POTENTIAL OF HIGHER

EDUCATION DIGITALIZATION

IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN

EUROPE

The above analysis allowed the authors to group the

countries of Central and Eastern Europe according to

their potential for the higher education digitalization.

Authors have highlighted speciﬁc criteria (table 4).

Thus, authors proposed 3 groups of Central and

Eastern European countries according to their poten-

tial for higher education digitalization of with their

indicator. Also, it is necessary to mention that this

potential correlates with countries’ income group.

Table 3: IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking in

2021.

Countries Rank

Future Readiness Rank

(Level of country

preparedness to

exploit digital

transformation)

Ukraine 54 58

Poland 41 39

Bulgaria 52 55

Czech Republic 33 37

Hungary 45 61

Romania 50 49

Slovakia 47 46

Austria 16 16

Croatia 55 60

Slovenia 35 40

Germany 18 18

Switzerland 6 3

High potential for the higher education digitaliza-

tion have the countries of Central Europe – Austria,

Germany, Slovenia and Switzerland. So, the universi-

ties of these countries will be more attractive for for-

eign students in modern conditions of globalization.

Lower-middle potential for higher education digi-

talization has Ukraine and Moldova. This is an alarm-

ing signal given today’s war in Ukraine. Firstly,

Ukraine currently has a large outﬂow of young peo-

ple due to the war. At the end of March 2022, more

than 3.8 million people left Ukraine due to the war,

mostly young people. Secondly, according to the

study, Ukrainian universities and society as a whole

have less potential for digitalization of higher educa-

The Potential of Higher Education Digitalization in Central and Eastern Europe

547

Table 4: Grouping Central and Eastern European countries according to their potential of the higher education digitalization.

Group Countries Indicators Income group

High potential for the

higher education digitalization

Switzerland,

Germany,

Austria,

Slovenia

NRI rank ≤27,

DSGI rank≤ 40,

High-income

Middle potential for

higher education digitalization

Romania,

Bulgaria,

Poland,

Slovakia,

Hungary,

Croatia,

Serbia,

Czech Republic

28≤ NRI rank ≤ 60,

41≤ DSGI rank ≤ 67

High-income,

Upper-middle-income

Lower-middle potential for

higher educationdigitalization

Ukraine,

Moldova

NRI rank >60,

DSGI rank >68

Lower-middle-income,

Upper-middle-income

tion than other countries in Central and Eastern Eu-

rope. Thus, it is possible to predict the outﬂow of

Ukrainian entrants and students to the countries of the

group of high potential for the higher education dig-

italization and middle potential for higher education

digitalization.

In our opinion, the practical recommendations for

higher education digitalization is public-private part-

nerships with the participation of manufacturers and

suppliers of advanced information and communica-

tion technologies that have prospects of application

in the educational process in higher education institu-

tions of countries.

In the future, the higher education digitalization

will ensure the development of digital competences

for all participants in the educational process, the for-

mation of ecological and digital awareness among

students (Stukalo and Simakhova, 2019), the adap-

tation of educational programs to changing socio-

economic conditions and the scientiﬁc and technolog-

ical revolution, and the development of a digital econ-

omy.

To summarize the results of the study, a SWOT

analysis of the potential of the higher education digi-

talization for the countries of Central and Eastern Eu-

rope was carried out (table 5). SWOT analysis is a

model for forming an information base and develop-

ing on its basis the most effective option for managing

socio-economic processes (including the higher edu-

cation digitalization). It is assumed that SWOT anal-

ysis is used to assess the situation under conditions of

uncertainty and to regulate individual parameters. In

this case, the regulation of parameters is understood

as the correction of the values of control parameters

for the implementation of the optimal development

scenario at a certain segment of the planning period.

6 E-LEARNING ENVIRONMENT:

UKRAINIAN UNIVERSITY’S

CASE

As an example, let us present the case of Sumy State

University (Ukraine) on the creation of an e-learning

platform based on its own unique developments. The

e-learning environment is shown in ﬁgure 4.

The e-learning ecosystem includes various tools

for the implementation of distance, e-learning and

blended learning, platforms for creating educational

materials, a platform for massive open online courses,

a repository of educational materials. The developer

of educational materials works autonomously, with-

out involving technical services in the software im-

plementation of the project in the process of creating

a package of tasks. In the process of creation, only

the developer communicates with consultants of var-

ious levels. After agreeing on the content, the mate-

rials are reviewed and posted in open or closed (di-

rectly for course students within the university) ac-

cess; programmers implement only non-trivial tasks

within the framework of educational courses (inter-

active elements, virtual and augmented reality, etc.)

(ﬁgure 5).

As part of the implementation of various mod-

els of electronic learning, they are constantly being

improved on the basis of feedback from develop-

ers of educational materials, reviewers, programmers,

and listeners. As an example, the questionnaire of a

survey of developers of educational materials of the

“Mix” platform (blended learning) in 2021 is given.

The advantages of the “Mix” platform:

• all teachers and students are in a single learning

space;

AET 2021 - Myroslav I. Zhaldak Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology

548

Table 5: SWOT analysis of the higher education digitalization for the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

Strengths Weakness

- high digital skills of

academic teachers (DSGI Score 4.8);

- state support;

- relevant regulatory framework;

- high level of country

preparedness to exploit digital transformation.

- negative attitude of population

to distance education (30%);

- lack of methodological support

for distance courses;

- increase the time load on teachers

Opportunities Threats

- development of the digital

economy and distance education;

- the future of technology;

- opportunities for education

during pandemics and war;

- creation of the Digital European

University with Artiﬁcial Intelligence

- different level of provision of

families with means for online

learning (21% of families

have poor quality of the Intern;

19 % – lack of devices for online learning);

- low level for readiness for

future technologies

in Eastern Europe (Score: 60-126)

Figure 4: E-learning environment: Sumy State University case (Ukraine).

• the ability to control the educational process in

real time;

• the platform is synchronized with the uniﬁed in-

formation system of the university;

• systematic support from the university;

• the opportunity for teachers to work collectively

both in the creation of materials and in virtual

classrooms;

• uniﬁed tools simpliﬁes the use of the platform for

all users;

• automatic connection, control, archiving;

• the ability to manage user registration, deﬁne

roles, manage content;

• creation of virtual classes, adjustment of the nec-

essary parameters.

Disadvantages of the “Mix” platform:

• instability of work;

• inconvenient interface for working with mobile

devices;

• insufﬁcient functionality to provide the necessary

activities;

• difﬁculty in settings;

The Potential of Higher Education Digitalization in Central and Eastern Europe

549

Figure 5: Algorithm for creating educational materials.

• inconvenient interface for working with a personal

computer;

• insufﬁcient level of technical support for users;

• excessive openness and transparency for control

by the university.

Measures to improve the “Mix” platform:

• integration with services for webinars (Meet,

Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc.);

• integration with plagiarism testing services;

• mobile version with chat;

• integration with additional services of ACS “Uni-

versity”.

The proposed e-learning system has proven to

be an effective tool for remote work during a pan-

demic. The use of this system in synchronous-

asynchronous training during the war for the inde-

pendence of Ukraine, which began on February 24,

2022 with the invasion of the Russian Federation, be-

came even more relevant. Due to the destruction of

individual universities or the impossibility of study-

ing in the occupied territories, students resort to inter-

nal mobility, which is possible under the conditions

of creating a proper educational environment for e-

learning. Currently, the National Agency for Higher

Education Quality Assurance has compiled a list of

about 50 universities (the list continues to expand),

which is ready to ensure internal academic mobility of

students with subsequent transfer of credits to home

university (students who have the opportunity to con-

tinue online learning) more than 20 Ukrainian univer-

sities that continue the educational process, showed

that at least 50% of the contingent are ready to join

synchronous learning. Another 20-25% are ready to

study asynchronously in the e-learning environment.

For the above reasons, the e-learning system can

be upgraded by introducing the following educational

components:

1. Creating a model of student learning, which is

the simultaneous use of “Rotation” (study time

is divided between individual e-learning and on-

line meetings with tutors, “ﬂipped classroom”)

and “Flex” (most of the curriculum is mastered

in e-learning with group or individual consulta-

tions) models. The basis of the combined model

are active teaching methods (problem lecture

and lecture-visualization, group work on creative

tasks, etc. – face-to-face learning) and e-learning

technologies (distance learning, work with sim-

ulators, author’s open electronic resources, elec-

tronic resources of the world’s leading universi-

ties). also in order to identify his propensity for a

particular activity pi after graduating from univer-

sity.

2. Lecture “puzzle”

The model proposed above has sometimes proved

inﬂexible in terms of the ability to master 10 skills that

employers need in the last 2–3 years. The model only

partially satisﬁed the conditions for acquiring skills

and is now obsolete in terms of developing e-learning

opportunities. In addition, the monotony of the types

of work led to a signiﬁcant reduction in student pro-

ductivity.

”Puzzle”: each lecture is formed from blocks F2F,

MOOC, VR and AR+.

Element 1: in block F2F there is a possibility to

move from one type of lecture to another, for exam-

ple, “problem” – “knowingly wrong answer” – “dis-

AET 2021 - Myroslav I. Zhaldak Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology

550

cussion” (complex multilevel problem solving, criti-

cal thinking, forming one’s own opinion and decision

making).

Element 2: in the F2F block there is an opportu-

nity to move from lecture to practical classes using

the practice of active learning, MOOC, VR and AR+

(creativity in the broadest sense)

Element 3: the F2F block uses the practice of

interactive learning, “substitution” of teacher-student

communication for student communication with each

other (emotional intelligence, customer orientation,

negotiation skills).

3. “Project – incentive – motivation”

In today’s educational environment, some teach-

ers are “info-gypsies” – translators of their courses,

which have no practical signiﬁcance.

Mentoring is one of the most promising tools for

professional development of students. However, it

is a misconception to use pseudo-mentoring for a

group of people (within traditional practical classes),

which is ineffective due to the individuality of each

learner. Implementing mentoring in classroom condi-

tions is quite difﬁcult. Individual work with the stu-

dent is limited to discussing the individual task with

the teacher – the head of educational or qualiﬁcation

work and does not transfer consideration of the issue

of motivation, support. Mentoring as an element of

“guardianship” of the learner is a tool for learning

competencies, which does not motivate the student

(there is only an incentive – the need to defend the

task to obtain a certain number of points) and among

other things implements the function of advice.

The institute of mentoring has become widespread

in foreign universities, but in fact it can be called an

institute of mentoring. Mentoring “as is”, by analogy

with domestic universities, has problems with imple-

mentation due to the inability to work with students

individually in the classroom. Extracurricular work

as an element of the training course due to the lack

of a mechanism for its evaluation does not contribute

to the teacher’s role as a mentor. Thus, solving the

problem of mentoring in online learning will provide

an opportunity for students to acquire new skills and

awareness of the phenomenon of motivation at the

level of mental processes. The selection of mentoring

and mentoring as separate teaching methods allows

us to trace the evolution of the teacher on the path of

“info-gypsy – mentor – mentor” with the change of

functions at each stage.

7 CONCLUSIONS

Thus, the countries of Central and Western Europe

can be divided into three groups according to global

indicators of their potential for digitalization of higher

education. The most attractive for students are the

countries of the ﬁrst group with high potential for dig-

italization, namely Austria, Germany, Switzerland,

and Slovenia.

The pandemic COVID-19 has led to the active

digitalization of higher education. Despite the fact

that in the beginning of 2020 there were many prob-

lems with online learning, for two years now the

higher education system has been operating effec-

tively at a distance. It is the digitalization of higher

education that will overcome the negative conse-

quences of the migration of entrants and students

from Ukraine through the war to Central and East-

ern Europe. In view of this, it would be promising

to create a European platform for teaching Ukrainian

students, where, along with English, the languages

of Central or Eastern Europe, it would be possible to

study subjects in Ukrainian.

The case study of the implementation of digital-

ization tools in Ukrainian universities showed that the

digitalization of higher education ensured the conti-

nuity of the process of persuasion during the pan-

demic and war in Ukraine.

The recommendations for improving the digital-

ization of education are:

• public-private partnerships with the participation

of manufacturers and suppliers of advanced infor-

mation and communication technologies that have

prospects of application in the educational process

in higher education institutions;

• teachers training in e-tools of online learning;

• mentoring use for professional development of

students.

So, the higher education digitalization allows min-

imizing the negative social consequences of global

challenges such as pandemics and wars. The perspec-

tives of further higher education digitalization of Cen-

tral and Eastern Europe is the creation of a Digital Eu-

ropean University with artiﬁcial intelligence based on

a partnership between the state and business.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research was funded by the grants from the

Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine “Re-

forming the lifelong learning system in Ukraine

for the prevention of the labor emigration: a

The Potential of Higher Education Digitalization in Central and Eastern Europe

551

competition model of institutional partnership”

(reg. n. 0120U102001), “Convergence of economic

and educational transformations in the digital society:

modeling the impact on regional and national secu-

rity” (reg. n. 0121U109553).

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