The Current Level of Competence of Schoolteachers on How to Use

Cloud Technologies in the Educational Process During COVID-19 and

the Russian-Ukrainian War

Tetiana A. Vakaliuk

1,2,3 a

, Oleg M. Spirin

4,2 b

, Dmytro S. Antoniuk

1 c

, Mariia O. Medvedieva

5 d

Olha O. Osova

6 e

and Inesa V. Novitska

7 f

Zhytomyr Polytechnic State University, 103 Chudnivsyka Str., Zhytomyr, 10005, Ukraine

Institute for Digitalisation of Education of the NAES of Ukraine, 9 M. Berlynskoho Str., Kyiv, 04060, Ukraine

Kryvyi Rih State Pedagogical University, 54 Gagarin Ave., Kryvyi Rih, 50086, Ukraine

University of Educational Management, 52A Sichovykh Striltsiv Str., Kyiv, 04053, Ukraine

Pavlo Tychyna Uman State Pedagogical University, 2 Sadova Str., Uman, 20300, Ukraine

Kharkiv Humanitarian Pedagogical Academy, 7 Rustavelli Str., Kharkiv, 61001, Ukraine

Zhytomyr Ivan Franko State University, 40 Velyka Berdychivska Str., Zhytomyr, Ukraine, 10008

Keywords:

Competence, Cloud Technologies, Cloud Services, Distance Learning, Educational Process, COVID-19.

Abstract:

During the period of total lockdown, teachers had to move to distance learning to organize a continuous ed-

ucational process, which is not possible without the active use of modern information and communication

technologies, including cloud services. Because of this, at the beginning of the pandemic, Zhytomyr Polytech-

nic State University conducted several free distance online courses for teachers, which included studying the

possibilities of using cloud technologies in teaching in a pandemic. Somewhat later, some secondary schools

in Zhytomyr expressed a desire to take the same courses, but in person. 98 teachers of schools of the city

of Zhytomyr were covered by training on courses “Cloud technologies in the educational process in the con-

ditions of quarantine”. After face-to-face courses, teachers in Zhytomyr schools have signiﬁcantly increased

their competence in the use of cloud technologies in the educational process in the context of the COVID-19

pandemic. Not only has their level increased in general, but the horizons regarding the variety of cloud services

that should be used in distance learning have expanded. Course training, organized according to scientiﬁcally

sound methods, helps to increase the motivation of students (teachers) to self-study, as well as to the future

use of cloud technologies in the educational process. The two-year pandemic and the start of a full-scale war

between Russia and Ukraine contributed to the fact that teachers of secondary schools began to actively en-

gage in self-education and self-development. If earlier (at the beginning of the pandemic) it was difﬁcult for

teachers to switch to online learning, then with the outbreak of war, teachers were already ready to use various

online tools in their practice. As the study showed, all the interviewed teachers continued their self-education

in different ways, studied a large number of services that can be used in the educational process, and provided

the authors with ideas for further expanding the courses according to their desires, which should be used in the

educational process. It should be noted that it is important that all the respondents unanimously approved that

they use the acquired competencies in their professional activities during the period of Russian aggression. In

addition, in additional comments, teachers noted that among their acquaintances there are many teachers who

want to take such courses since at one time they had no desire or motivation.

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6825-4697

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9594-6602

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7496-3553

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9330-5185

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7316-1196

1 INTRODUCTION

With the spread of COVID-19, the educational pro-

cess of foreign and domestic educational institutions

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0780-0580

588

Vakaliuk, T., Spirin, O., Antoniuk, D., Medvedieva, M., Osova, O. and Novitska, I.

The Current Level of Competence of Schoolteachers on How to Use Cloud Technologies in the Educational Process During COVID-19 and the Russian-Ukrainian War.

DOI: 10.5220/0012066300003431

In Proceedings of the 2nd Myroslav I. Zhaldak Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology (AET 2021), pages 588-604

ISBN: 978-989-758-662-0

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

is undergoing signiﬁcant changes. During the pe-

riod of total lockdown, teachers had to move to dis-

tance learning to organize a continuous educational

process, which is not possible without the active use

of modern information and communication technolo-

gies (ICT), including cloud technologies and services.

Many teachers had to simultaneously increase their

competence in using such services and teach students

to do it. Students and teachers had to cope with many

challenges for the proper and effective use of cloud

services in the organization of such training.

With this in mind, at the beginning of the pan-

demic, Zhytomyr Polytechnic State University con-

ducted a series of free distance online courses for

teachers, which included studying the possibilities of

using cloud technologies in teaching in a pandemic.

A scientiﬁcally sound methodology was developed,

which contained a semantic component with a list of

topics and features of forms, methods, and means of

conducting such courses were described in the pre-

vious work (Vakaliuk et al., 2021b). 1,500 teachers

were registered for the course, and 816 people com-

pleted the course. Therefore, some institutions of sec-

ondary education in Zhytomyr expressed a desire to

go through the same courses, but full-time mode. It

was decided to hold such courses for schoolteachers.

Before starting the courses, it was necessary to ﬁnd

out the current level of their competence in the use

of cloud technologies in the educational process in

the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The courses

were held at Zhytomyr Polytechnic State University

in August 2020 full-time.

2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Throughout the pandemic, scientists from around the

world have raised questions about the use of different

information and communication technologies in the

educational process, the introduction of distance and

blended learning, and more.

In particular, Nagaraju et al. (Nagaraju et al.,

2021) analyzed the effectiveness of online learning

during the COVID-19 pandemic and studied adapting

teaching and learning in times of COVID-19. Accord-

ing to an online survey of 683 respondents (teachers

and students), 38% did not even start such training,

although it is inevitable in such a situation.

Falfushynska et al. (Falfushynska et al., 2021)

identiﬁed various ICT tools for the implementation of

distance learning, including Zoom, Moodle, Google

Meet, BigBlueButton, and Cisco. The study showed

the satisfaction of subjects and their positive attitude

to distance learning, satisfaction with the quality of

such tools. During the pandemic, the readiness of

students and pupils to organize independent learning

becomes especially important, which requires them

to be motivated to learn, keep track of time, can use

modern ICT, self-discipline, and control.

Korobova et al. (Korobova et al., 2019) created

an educational environment uses Google’s cloud ser-

vices, the use of which allows taking into account the

individual characteristics of students in education, the

geographical region of their residence, etc.

Korobeinikova et al. (Korobeinikova et al., 2020)

show an example of the use of cloud services in their

activities as a means of improving student learning

and teaching disciplines, in particular Google Class-

room, which allows you to manage the independent

work of students while studying disciplines. The au-

thors emphasize that when organizing the educational

process using cloud technologies, it is necessary to

move to the application of the model of blended learn-

ing in universities.

The analysis of domestic and foreign experience

in the use of cloud services for the formation of pro-

fessional competence of future teachers is demon-

strated by Shyshkina and Marienko (Shyshkina and

Marienko, 2020). Particular attention is paid to the

development of the professional competence of fu-

ture mathematics teachers. Researchers have deﬁned

this competence and identiﬁed two components: dig-

ital and subject competence. Emphasis is placed on

the feasibility of using cloud services in the forma-

tion and development of this competence, in particu-

lar, the prospects for using the CoCalc cloud service

are described.

The issue of professional training of teachers for

the organization of learning with the help of cloud ser-

vices was studied by Velychko et al. (Velychko et al.,

2021), who conducted a survey of mathematics teach-

ers on the use of ICT in the educational process. The

authors found that 82% of mathematics teachers who

participated in the survey use cloud services in edu-

cation, implement on their basis modern methods and

forms of teaching, use a variety of modern cloud ser-

vices to teach mathematics.

The connection between the concepts of cloud

systems and cloud learning environments is covered

in the study of Popel and Shyshkina (Popel and

Shyshkina, 2019). The authors deﬁne the cloud learn-

ing system as a component of such an environment.

Scientists consider approaches to deﬁning the cloud

learning system – the ﬁrst approach is based on the

deﬁnition of such a system as a set of cloud services

or technologies, the second – deﬁnes the cloud learn-

ing system as a separate type of cloud service (Popel

and Shyshkina, 2019).

The Current Level of Competence of Schoolteachers on How to Use Cloud Technologies in the Educational Process During COVID-19 and

the Russian-Ukrainian War

589

The use of cloud services in the organization of

training affects the quality of training of future pro-

fessionals. Such practical experience is described in

(Volikova et al., 2019). It is emphasized that it is im-

possible to build a new educational environment with-

out cloud services as a means of learning, which is a

powerful tool for mastering new competencies of both

teachers and students in the study of fundamental dis-

ciplines.

Markova et al. (Markova et al., 2019) dealt with

the research of cloud learning technologies, cloud-

based learning environment, provision of cloud edu-

cational services for the organization of professional

training of future IT specialists, who concluded that it

is advisable to use different models of cloud services

(SaaS, PaaS, IaaS), as well as the possibilities of new

tools for parallel programming.

In (Astaﬁeva et al., 2019) the expediency of us-

ing cloud learning technologies for the formation of

skills of future teachers of mathematics of the 21st

century, in particular critical thinking, is emphasized.

The authors consider forms and methods of teaching

based on the GeoGebra computer system and cloud

technologies. To evaluate the effectiveness of this ap-

proach, the methods of fuzzy set theory are used.

The professional competence of a teacher accord-

ing to European standards is described by Morze

and Glazunova (Morze and Glazunova, 2019), which

presents a model for the development of this compe-

tence of information technology teachers, consisting

of stages, subjects, and resources. The authors em-

phasize the need to use existing e-CF and ISTE stan-

dards to develop this competence in teachers.

In the conditions of the introduction of cloud ser-

vices and means of distance learning in the educa-

tional process of modern secondary education insti-

tutions, one of the main competencies of teachers be-

comes information and communication competence.

The methodology for the development of this compe-

tence in teachers of the military education system is

presented in (Yahupov et al., 2020), in particular, the

main tasks of its development are identiﬁed. Teach-

ing aids have been identiﬁed, among which ICT tools

are mandatory: computer-based educational systems

in the multimedia versions; laboratory remote work-

shops; simulators; electronic libraries with remote ac-

cess, etc. In addition, the expediency of the intro-

duction of active learning methods, which are imple-

mented through the use of computer networks, audio-

video, and other telecommunications, including the

Internet.

In (Moiseienko et al., 2020) one of the modern

competencies is considered – digital, as one of the

factors of formation of the information society in

Ukraine. Based on the analysis of the deﬁnition of

digital competence, its interpretation is given, the di-

dactic conditions of its formation are singled out.

It is also worth noting that a number of authors

have studied the development of digital competencies

associated with the use of cloud services. Basilotta-

omez-Pablos et al. (Basilotta-G

omez-Pablos et al.,

2022) study a systematic literature review for teach-

ers’ digital competencies in higher education; Find-

eisen and Wild (Findeisen and Wild, 2022) research

general digital competences of beginning trainees in

commercial vocational education and training; Spada

et al. (Spada et al., 2022) explored problems are uni-

versities ready to deliver digital skills and compe-

tences. Tzaﬁlkou et al. (Tzaﬁlkou et al., 2022) are

development and validation of students’ digital com-

petence scale. In particular, Vakaliuk et al. (Vakaliuk

et al., 2021a) also studied the formation of digital

competence of CS bachelors in the use of cloud-based

learning environments, and Morze et al. (Morze et al.,

2022) researched systems for digital professional de-

velopment of university teachers.

According to Spirin (Spirin, 2019), any individual

can move faster in learning a new profession through

online courses. Because with such training there is

a possibility to combine online and ofﬂine courses.

Various platforms have recently been used to con-

duct online courses, such as Coursera, MIT OCW,

Prometheus, Udemy, edX, Udacity, Stanford online,

etc. The author pays special attention to course ag-

gregators. In particular, Course Buffet is an aggrega-

tor that allows you to choose a specialization from a

certain set of courses. This specialization will corre-

spond to the number of credits in the specializations

of different universities around the world. As a result,

it is possible to study according to the same subject

load as at the university, where the educational pro-

cess takes place according to traditional teaching.

In the conditions of quarantine in March-April

2020 in Ukraine in general secondary education insti-

tutions, the use of the web service Zoom for conduct-

ing video lessons in combination with Google Class-

room became widely popular. However, the use of the

latter imposes some requirements and restrictions, in

particular:

• participants must have a Google account;

• the system must be registered as an educational in-

stitution, otherwise, the teacher’s own disk space

is used, which is limited for an individual user;

• Google’s children’s proﬁle is limited to 13 years

for the free use of resources, including no ac-

cess to videos used for educational purposes on

YouTube.

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In addition, as of the end of December 2022, the

most popular (in terms of trust rating and a number

of downloads from Google Workspace Marketplace)

digital video conferencing services, webinars, and or-

ganizers are: Zoom, Yamm, and MS Teams (Google,

2022).

That is why the purpose of the article is to deter-

mine the current level of competence of schoolteach-

ers on how to use cloud technologies in the educa-

tional process during COVID-19 and the Russian-

Ukrainian war.

3 RESULTS

The purpose of training on the courses “Cloud tech-

nologies in the educational process in quarantine”

was to get acquainted with the basic methodologies

of using cloud technologies in education; a general

overview of existing cloud technologies and consider-

ation of the main provisions of cloud technologies for

use in the educational process. The course was com-

pletely identical to the course conducted in the period

March-April 2020 (Vakaliuk et al., 2021b). The main

difference was that teacher training was conducted

traditionally – in the classroom.

98 teachers of schools of the city of Zhytomyr

were covered by training on courses “Cloud technolo-

gies in the educational process in the conditions of

quarantine”. At the beginning of the course, a survey

was conducted to clarify general issues. To the ques-

tion “Do you have a computer (laptop) at home?”,

98.98% of respondents answered in the afﬁrmative.

The same answer was given to the question “If you

have a computer at home, is it connected to the Inter-

net?” and “Can you ﬁnd the information you need on

the Internet?” (ﬁgure 1a). Interestingly, 100% of re-

spondents indicated that “the Internet is necessary for

his / her professional activity”.

These general questions are also important be-

cause, unfortunately, nowadays not all teachers (in-

cluding those from villages) have their own computer

or access to the Internet.

In response to the question “Are you able to

choose and use software to optimally present the dif-

ferent types of materials needed for the learning pro-

cess?”, 63.92% of respondents indicated that they

know how to choose and use software for optimal

presentation of different types of materials, necessary

for the learning process, while all the others answered

that they do not know how (ﬁgure 1).

The next question of the general unit was whether

teachers have their website or blog. In response to this

question, only 23.71% of respondents answered that

there is, and 76.29% do not (ﬁgure 2) At the same

time, 96.91% of respondents indicated that they had

a website for their school, and only 3.09% said no

(ﬁgure 2).

The following questions were about whether the

course participants know what cloud technologies and

services are, to which 60.82% of respondents an-

swered in the afﬁrmative, 39.18% answered “no” (ﬁg-

ure 3). At the same time, only 44.9% used cloud tech-

nologies in teaching their subject before taking the

courses, and 55.10% did not use them before taking

the courses (ﬁgure 3).

The following questions served to establish the

competence of teachers on the use of cloud tech-

nologies in the educational process during COVID-

19 and were studied before and after the courses

that included the acquisition of basic competencies

for working with cloud technology in the educational

process in the conditions of a pandemic.

When ﬁnding out what motives motivate teachers

to use cloud technologies in the educational process

(table 1 and ﬁgure 4), it was found that more than

50% of respondents in both cases chose the need to

be able to use different cloud technologies (at the end

of the experiment respondents who chose this type of

motive increased by 4.2%), the need for self-study us-

ing various cloud technologies at the beginning of the

experiment was chosen by 25.54% of respondents, at

the end – 22.10%. Regarding the other two motives –

there was an interesting dynamic: the need to be ac-

quainted with cloud technologies before the experi-

ment chose 10.2%, after – 5.81%, when choosing the

need to study the main types of cloud technologies –

the situation was the opposite – at the beginning of the

experiment 6.12%, at the end – 11.63%. Accordingly,

at the beginning of the experiment 2.04% and at the

end of 1.16% of respondents did not see the need to

use cloud technologies in the educational process in

general.

In general, according to the results of the survey,

after the courses, the motivation of teachers to use

cloud technology in the educational process has in-

creased.

Determining which of the proposed motives mo-

tivate teachers to self-study using cloud services, it

was found that 76.54% (before the experiment) and

69.88% (after the experiment) of respondents chose

the need for self-improvement and self-development

in future professions; the need to understand the sig-

niﬁcance of the acquired skills before the experiment

was chosen by 12.24% and after – 16.87%; the need

to understand the signiﬁcance of the acquired knowl-

edge was chosen by 10.2% and 7.23%, respectively

(table 2 and ﬁgure 5).

The Current Level of Competence of Schoolteachers on How to Use Cloud Technologies in the Educational Process During COVID-19 and

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Figure 1: Survey results to the question “If you have a computer at home, is it connected to the Internet?”, “Can you ﬁnd the

information you need on the Internet?”, and “Are you able to choose and use software to optimally present the different types

of materials needed for the learning process?”.

Figure 2: Survey results to the question “Are you have their website or blog?” and “Are you have a website for your school?”.

Table 1: Respondents’ answers to the question “Which of the following motives motivate you to use cloud technologies in the

educational process?”

At the beginning

of the experiment

At the end of

the experiment

The need to be able to use different cloud technologies 55.10% 59.30%

The need for self-study using various cloud technologies 26.54% 22.10%

The need to get acquainted with cloud technologies 10.20% 5.81%

The need to study the main types of cloud technologies 6.12% 11.63%

I do not see the need to use cloud technologies in the educational process 2.04% 1.16%

The need to be a leader was not a priority, and

some respondents did not see the need for self-study

at all.

Regarding the level of teachers’ knowledge of

cloud technologies, at the beginning of the experi-

ment, 51.02% of respondents only knew what cloud

technologies were (while after the experiment the

share of respondents was 9.64%), at the end of the

experiment 53.01% of respondents already knew ba-

sic cloud services that can be used in the educational

process (at the beginning of the experiment, this per-

centage was 24.49%). It should be noted that 17.35%

did not hear about cloud technologies at the begin-

ning of the experiment, while this ﬁgure decreased to

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Figure 3: Survey results to the question “What is cloud technologies and services?” and “Do you used cloud technologies in

teaching your subject?”.

Figure 4: Respondents’ answers to the question “Which of the following motives motivate you to use cloud technologies in

the educational process?”

2.41% at the end of the experiment (table 3 and ﬁg-

ure 6).

Regarding the level of teachers’ mastery of the

ability to use cloud technologies, the following was

The Current Level of Competence of Schoolteachers on How to Use Cloud Technologies in the Educational Process During COVID-19 and

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Table 2: Respondents’ answers to the question “Which of the following motives motivate you to self-study using cloud

services?”

At the beginning

of the experiment

At the end of

the experiment

The need for self-improvement and self-development in future profes-

sions

76.54% 69.88%

The need to understand the signiﬁcance of the acquired knowledge 10.20% 7.23%

The need to understand the signiﬁcance of the acquired skills 12.24% 16.87%

The need to be a leader 1.02% 3.61%

I do not see the need for self-study at all 0.00% 2.41%

Figure 5: Respondents’ answers to the question “Which of the following motives motivate you to self-study using cloud

services?”

Table 3: Respondents’ answers to the question “What is the level of your mastery of cloud technology knowledge?”

At the beginning

of the experiment

At the end of

the experiment

I haven’t heard of cloud technology at all 17.35% 2.41%

I know what cloud technology is 51.02% 9.64%

I know the difference between cloud computing, cloud technology, and

services

4.08% 7.23%

I know the basic cloud services that can be used in the educational process 24.49% 53.01%

I know the peculiarities of using different cloud services, and ways to

choose the best cloud service

3.06% 27.71%

found: 53.01% of teachers after the courses (com-

pared to 14.29% before the courses) can work with

cloud technologies, while at the beginning of the

course 48.98% only knew what cloud technology

was; from 5.1% to 19.28% increased the number of

teachers who can use cloud technology for self-study.

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Figure 6: Respondents’ answers to the question “What is the level of your mastery of cloud technology knowledge?”

It is worth noting that the percentage of those teach-

ers who do not know what cloud technologies are and

what they are used for has decreased from 20.41%

(before the courses) to 2.41% (after the courses).

A detailed presentation of the level of teachers’

mastery of the skills to use cloud technologies is pre-

sented in the table 4 and ﬁgure 7).

Since in the course of the courses attention was

paid to certain types of cloud tools, it was impor-

tant to ask how many teachers have learned to use

different tools in the learning process. In particu-

lar, the level of teachers’ mastery of the ability to

use cloud-based mind maps in the educational pro-

cess can be described as follows. They did not know

at all what mind maps were and what they were used

for – 51.02% at the beginning of the experiment, and

this percentage dropped to 1.2% after the experiment;

41.84% of respondents knew what mind maps were

before the courses, and there were isolated cases of

knowledge of different cloud-based mind maps, skills

to work with cloud-based mind maps and the ability

to use cloud-based mind maps for self-study. After

the experiment, the number of those who knew differ-

ent cloud-based mind maps increased from 2.04% to

12.05%, as well as those who knew how to work with

cloud-based mind maps – from 3.06% to 48.19%. The

percentage of those who were able to use cloud-based

mind maps for self-study increased from 2.04% to

19.28%. A detailed presentation of the level of teach-

ers’ mastery of the ability to use cloud-based mind

maps is presented in the table 5 and ﬁgure 8).

Working on a joint project plays an important role

in distance learning, as well as in blended learning.

Therefore, establishing the level of mastery of teach-

ers’ ability to work on a joint project in the use of

cloud technologies was also important. As a result, it

was found that 42.86% of teachers (at the beginning

of the experiment) did not know what a joint project

was and how to work on it in the conditions of us-

ing cloud technologies, and after that, the percentage

signiﬁcantly decreased to 1.20%. Among teachers,

42.86% also knew what a joint project was before the

courses.

The percentage of those who knew different cloud

services to work on a joint project, knew how to

choose different cloud services to work on a joint

project, and knew how to use different cloud services

to work on a joint project, even in self-study, was

too small at the beginning of the experiment (9.18%,

3.06%, 2.04%, respectively). At the same time, after

The Current Level of Competence of Schoolteachers on How to Use Cloud Technologies in the Educational Process During COVID-19 and

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Table 4: Respondents’ answers to the question “What is the level of mastery of your skills to use cloud technologies?”

At the beginning

of the experiment

At the end of

the experiment

I do not know what cloud technology is and what it is used for 20.41% 2.41%

I know what cloud technology is 48.98% 10.84%

I know different cloud technologies 11.22% 14.46%

I can work with cloud technologies 14.29% 53.01%

I can use cloud technologies for self-study 5.10% 19.28%

Figure 7: Respondents’ answers to the question “What is the level of mastery of your skills to use cloud technologies?”

Table 5: Respondents’ answers to the question “What is the level of mastery of your skills to use cloud-based mind maps in

the educational process?”

At the beginning

of the experiment

At the end of

the experiment

I do not know at all what mind maps are and what they are used for 51.02% 1.20%

I know what mind maps are 41.84% 19.28%

I know different cloud-oriented mind maps 2.04% 12.05%

I can work with cloud-based mind maps 3.06% 48.19%

I can use cloud-based mind maps for self-study 2.04% 19.28%

the courses, these indicators increased signiﬁcantly –

14.46%, 37.35%, and 30.12%, respectively.

A detailed presentation of the level of mastering

the skills of teachers to work on a joint project in the

use of cloud technologies is presented in the table 6

and ﬁgure 9).

The next indicator that was evaluated was the level

of teachers’ mastery of the skills of using cloud-

based learning management tools. Again, before

the courses, 44.9% did not know what cloud-based

learning management tools were and what they were

used for, while after the experiment, this percentage

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Figure 8: Respondents’ answers to the question “What is the level of mastery of your skills to use cloud-based mind maps in

the educational process?”

Table 6: Respondents’ answers to the question “What is the level of mastering your skills to work on a joint project in the use

of cloud technologies?”

At the beginning

of the experiment

At the end of

the experiment

I do not know at all what a joint project is and how to work on it in the

conditions of using cloud technologies

42.86% 1.20%

I know what a joint project is 42.86% 16.87%

I know different cloud services to work on a joint project 9.18% 14.46%

I can choose different cloud services to work on a joint project 3.06% 37.35%

I can use various cloud services to work on a joint project, even with self-

study

2.04% 30.12%

dropped to 2.41%. At the beginning of the exper-

iment, 32.65% of teachers knew what cloud-based

learning management tools were, and there were

few cases when teachers knew different cloud-based

learning management tools (15.31%), we’re able to

work with cloud-based learning management tools

(7.14%). At the same time, no teacher was able to use

cloud-based learning management tools for self-study

before the experiment. After the courses, 46.99%

of teachers knew different cloud-based learning man-

agement tools, 19.28% were able to use cloud-based

learning management tools for self-study.

A detailed presentation of the level of mastering

by teachers of the skills of using cloud-based learn-

ing management tools is presented in the table 7 and

ﬁgure 10).

The level of teachers’ mastery of the skills of us-

ing cloud-based means of presenting educational ma-

terials after the courses have signiﬁcantly increased

(table 8 and ﬁgure 11).

Also, the level of mastering by teachers of skills

of using cloud-oriented means of communication has

signiﬁcantly increased, which is presented in the ta-

ble 9 and ﬁgure 12).

The Current Level of Competence of Schoolteachers on How to Use Cloud Technologies in the Educational Process During COVID-19 and

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Figure 9: Respondents’ answers to the question “What is the level of mastering your skills to work on a joint project in the

use of cloud technologies?”

Table 7: Respondents’ answers to the question “What is your level of mastery of the skills of using cloud-based learning

management tools?”

At the beginning

of the experiment

At the end of

the experiment

I do not know at all what cloud-based learning management tools are and

what they are used for

44.90% 2.41%

I know what cloud-based learning management tools are 32.65% 20.48%

I know various cloud-based learning management tools (electronic jour-

nal, calendar, placed in the cloud)

15.31% 10.84%

I can work with cloud-based learning management tools 7.14% 46.99%

I can use cloud-based learning management tools for self-study 0.00% 19.28%

Table 8: Respondents’ answers to the question “What is your level of mastery of the skills of using cloud-based teaching

materials?”

At the beginning

of the experiment

At the end of

the experiment

I don’t even know what cloud-based learning materials are 39.80% 1.20%

I know what cloud-based teaching materials are 30.61% 12.05%

I know various cloud-oriented tools for presenting educational materials

(electronic library, presentations, video ﬁles, electronic textbooks placed

in the cloud, cloud data warehouses)

21.43% 25.30%

I can work with cloud-oriented tools of presenting educational materials 7.14% 38.55%

I can use cloud-based tools for presenting educational materials for self-

study

1.02% 22.89%

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Figure 10: Respondents’ answers to the question “What is your level of mastery of the skills of using cloud-based learning

management tools?”

Table 9: Respondents’ answers to the question “What is your level of mastery of cloud-based communication skills?”

At the beginning

of the experiment

At the end of

the experiment

I don’t even know what cloud-based communication is 37.76% 0.00%

I know what cloud-based tools of communication are 34.69% 12.05%

I know various cloud-based tools of communication (discussion, chat, on-

line consultations, webinars)

18.37% 21.69%

I can work with cloud-based tools of communication 7.14% 42.17%

I can use cloud-based communication tools for self-study 2.04% 24.10%

After face-to-face courses, teachers in Zhytomyr

schools have signiﬁcantly increased their competence

in the use of cloud technologies in the educational

process in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is worth noting that not only their level, in general,

has increased, but also the horizons regarding the va-

riety of cloud services that should be used in distance

learning have expanded. Course training, organized

according to scientiﬁcally sound methods, helps to

increase the motivation of students (teachers) to self-

study, as well as to the future use of cloud technolo-

gies in the educational process.

Finally, it should be noted that the advantages

of full-time education include: clarity, accessibil-

ity, comprehensibility, and the advantages of distance

learning include: mass, no need for classrooms, no

need to transfer university teachers, and school teach-

ers’ classes.

The continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic

and the beginning of Russian aggression in Ukraine

prompted the authors of the article to determine how

useful the competencies acquired by teachers were

and whether they improved them over the past 1.5

years.

Accordingly, a questionnaire was prepared and

sent to all participants who were involved in the de-

scribed courses, which included the following ques-

tions:

1. How useful were the competencies you received?

The Current Level of Competence of Schoolteachers on How to Use Cloud Technologies in the Educational Process During COVID-19 and

the Russian-Ukrainian War

599

Figure 11: Respondents’ answers to the question “What is your level of mastery of the skills of using cloud-based teaching

materials?”

2. Do you use acquired competencies in your pro-

fessional activities during the period of Russian

aggression?

3. What cloud services are you currently using?

4. Did you improve your level of ICT competence in

the period September 2020-May 2022?

5. If the answer to the previous question is yes, how?

6. What purpose of massive open online courses did

you use to develop your competence?

7. Which ICTs that you have become familiar with

during this period do you use in your activities?

8. Which ICTs that you have become familiar with

during this period would you recommend to other

teachers?

9. What other services would you like to get ac-

quainted with in the future for effective profes-

sional work?

As a result, the survey involved 90 school teachers

in the city of Zhytomyr, previously involved in the

courses (which is 92%). For certain reasons, not all

teachers could complete the proposed survey (the lack

of the ability to view any information via the Internet,

the absence of the Internet itself, lack of any technical

means (laptop, tablet, personal computer), etc.).

When answering the ﬁrst question, 100% of re-

spondents indicated that the acquired competencies

were useful to them, of which 77% indicated a high

level of usefulness, and 23% – medium.

All the respondents unanimously approved that

acquired competencies in professional activities were

used during the period of Russian aggression. Also, in

additional comments, teachers noted that among their

acquaintances there are many teachers who want to

take such courses because at one time they had no de-

sire or motivation.

When asked what services you currently use, 80%

chose all the services they learned during the courses,

15% chose most services (except for one, each had

their own), and 5% of respondents chose only ser-

vices. Google Classroom and Google Meet. This in-

dicates that the services we have chosen for training

have not lost their relevance over time.

The next question was about the development of

teachers in the period 2020-2022. Namely, the ques-

tion was whether teachers improved their level of ICT

competence in the period September 2020-May 2022.

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600

Figure 12: Respondents’ answers to the question “What is your level of mastery of cloud-based communication skills?”

At the same time, 70% of teachers answered yes to

this question. At the same time, the majority of these

70% (89%) chose self-study as a means for their own

professional development, 63% chose advanced train-

ing courses, and 71% indicated massive open online

courses.

When determining which massive open online

courses teachers preferred, it was found that 67% of

those who chose massive open online courses went

through MOOC related to the use of various ICTs in

the educational process, 44% chose massive open on-

line courses to improve their foreign language proﬁ-

ciency, and 22% chose massive open online courses

to improve their knowledge native language.

It is worth noting here that the Prometheus plat-

form turned out to be the most common for passing

massive open online courses, since the platform itself

is Ukrainian-language, and most of the courses on

this platform are Ukrainian-language. In particular,

teachers noted that on this platform, most of the re-

spondents were interested in the Science of Education

course: “What the leader of an educational startup

should know” (https://courses.prometheus.org.ua/

courses/course-v1:PCSC+SL101+2019 T3/about).

This course is designed for 30 hours, which can

be completed in 3 weeks. The teachers were most

interested in the fact that among the questions to

study there are such as: for whom digital education is

needed, what is the essence of the educational project,

digital security and privacy during online learning,

psychological support for online project participants,

etc. As a result of taking this course, teachers

noted that they improved: their own knowledge of

modern trends in the development of education;

features of the processes of teaching and learning of

schoolchildren; the speciﬁcs of digital education and

understanding of what it is intended for, improved

their own skills (creativity, initiative, critical think-

ing, etc.), improved the ability to work with digital

educational online tools and improved the method

of teaching their subject, taking into account the

psychological characteristics of all participants in the

educational process.

Mathematics teachers also singled out such a ser-

vice as: Learning with passion (https://novatika.org/

uk/). This service includes a range of simulators for

learning mathematics from grades 1 to 8. The speci-

ﬁcity of this service is that the simulators are divided

not only by classes, but also by sections and topics.

All teachers, not only in mathematics, answered

The Current Level of Competence of Schoolteachers on How to Use Cloud Technologies in the Educational Process During COVID-19 and

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601

that they often use ready-made online tests in their

own subjects in their practice. There are a lot of such

tests on the Internet now, so there is a choice. The

only thing that the teachers emphasized was that each

time before using any tests, they should be reviewed

by themselves and checked for relevance to the top-

ics being studied. The use of such tests ensures the

interest and stimulation of students and promotes the

development of creativity, initiative, creativity, inde-

pendence, and other qualities necessary in the educa-

tional process.

All teachers surveyed unequivocally answered

that they recommend all the services they have read

to their colleagues.

The last question was creative and included the es-

tablishment of what services teachers would like to

get acquainted with in the future for effective profes-

sional work. As a result, the following was estab-

lished.

Biology teachers noted that in their educational

activities it is advisable to use augmented reality ap-

plications to familiarize students with individual top-

ics for study (human anatomy, animal structure, etc.),

as well as various game services to interest and moti-

vate students.

Geography teachers noted that they would also

use augmented reality applications in their activities

to familiarize students with the features of different

types of terrain, different countries, modeling pro-

cesses, and phenomena.

Computer science teachers noted that in their ac-

tivities there are many online tools for use in the ed-

ucational process (online compilers, automated sys-

tems for checking solutions to programming prob-

lems, massive open online courses, diagramming

tools, etc.), but they became more familiar with gam-

ing programs for learning languages and simulators

for studying the structure of a computer.

Chemistry teachers noted that there are few dif-

ferent tools in their educational activities, and they

would prefer any specialized tools to improve their

own teaching methods.

English teachers noted that it would be advisable

to get acquainted with additional services for learn-

ing English (by the level of knowledge, by grades, by

topic), including game services for primary schools

since learning English in most schools in Ukraine

starts from 1 class.

Physical education teachers noted that there are no

services at all for teaching their subject, except for

watching various videos on the YouTube channel. For

them, this issue is quite relevant and requires a sepa-

rate study.

All teachers agreed that online learning lacks a

quality service that would replace a regular black-

board at school. Although there are a large number

of online boards on the Internet, however, ordinary

teachers are not fully functional enough to be used in

the educational process.

Also, all teachers unambiguously agreed that ev-

erything they studied in the previous courses is useful

to the present. Since now the use of cloud services

for distance learning has become an even more urgent

problem.

4 DISCUSSION

Here it should be noted that the reason for the self-

development of teachers is of their own free will,

namely the situations that have developed in the world

in general and in Ukraine in particular. The global

pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus was only

the beginning of this. The full-scale offensive of the

Russian troops was a second impetus for even greater

awareness of the need to master the skills of using

various information and communication technologies

when teaching their subject. After all, in such peri-

ods it is necessary not only to teach your subject in

a quality manner but to use various information and

communication technologies to motivate and interest

students, as well as to take into account the psycho-

logical characteristics of all participants in the educa-

tional process in such a difﬁcult time.

In addition, not the possibility of learning in the

classroom simply requires the teacher to master all the

means of information and communication technolo-

gies, including cloud services, to improve and con-

duct classes in general. In this regard, those positions

are advantageous when teachers have mastered some

means of teaching either on their own or with the help

of certain courses. And it is cloud services that are a

means of providing distance learning in the conditions

that have arisen before Ukraine.

As for the teachers who chose massive open on-

line courses to improve their native language skills,

this, in our opinion, is connected with the beginning

of Russian aggression against Ukraine. After all, part

of the population of Ukraine spoke Russian, and for

them, the transition to their native language became

important only after the start of a full-scale invasion.

The massive open online courses for the study of

foreign languages is also connected precisely with the

need to consider the possibility of moving to another

country after the start of a full-scale invasion of Rus-

sian troops into the territory of Ukraine.

It should be noted that in additional comments to

the survey, some teachers indicated that during the

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

602

war they lost the opportunity to use technical means

in connection with a forced quick move to another

area (village, another region, another country). Some

of the respondents indicated that some teachers lost

their technical equipment, which was in the occupied

territories. As a result, we have that not all teach-

ers can perform their functional duties in such condi-

tions. Here we can only state that during the develop-

ment of our state in the post-war period, the Ministry

of Education and Science of Ukraine should provide

the possibility of purchasing technical equipment for

teachers who suffered as a result of a full-scale war.

5 CONCLUSIONS

The two-year pandemic and the start of a full-scale

war between Russia and Ukraine contributed to the

fact that teachers of secondary schools began to ac-

tively engage in self-education and self-development.

If earlier (at the beginning of the pandemic) it was

difﬁcult for teachers to switch to online learning, then

with the outbreak of war, teachers were already ready

to use various online tools in their practice.

As the study showed, all the interviewed teachers

continued their self-education in different ways, stud-

ied a large number of services that can be used in the

educational process, and provided the authors with

ideas for further expanding the courses according to

their desires, which should be used in the educational

process.

It should be noted that it is important that all the

respondents unanimously approved that they use the

acquired competencies in their professional activities

during the period of Russian aggression. In addition,

in additional comments, teachers noted that among

their acquaintances there are many teachers who want

to take such courses since at one time they had no de-

sire or motivation.

It is also important that all teachers expressed their

desire to study in the future with a division into sub-

jects of study. Therefore, here it should just be em-

phasized that it is important for teachers to study cer-

tain methods of using various information and com-

munication technologies in the educational process.

In the future, we plan to develop a continuation of

the courses, the speciﬁcs of which will be the distri-

bution into separate groups according to the subjects

of teaching for a more detailed study of the methods

of using various speciﬁc services within the frame-

work of the study of individual disciplines (physics,

mathematics, chemistry, biology, geography, foreign

language, computer science, etc.). Also, in further re-

search, we see the use of other practice-oriented meth-

ods to determine the level of formation of teachers’

competence.

Also, since this was not the object of this study, in

the future we see the prospects for studying teachers’

digital competence levels depending on their age.

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