Research

Digitalisation of Russia's HE
MOOCs adoption in Russia
Student support
Academic precariousness

 

 


Digitalisation of Russia's HE
at the intersection of policy and practice

Research problem and context

The fast-growing advancement of digital technologies means that to retain their significance in higher education (HE), academic staff need to continuously upgrade their expertise to match this technological evolution. Otherwise, as the literature suggests, the “machines, and more so intelligent systems that can reason and think, that do tasks faster, cheaper and better” will gradually drive the substantial number of academic staff “out of a job” (Camilleri, 2018, p. 1).

It has been argued that digitalization has altered the function of academics. Yet, little empirical evidence exists on how the roles of academics are being affected by digital transformation of HE. This study was designed to adresses the gap. First, I analysed the reported partnership models among internal HE stakeholders involved in online learning design to identify key and peripheral actors (Rotar, 2021). Secondly, I conducted a Foucauldian discourse analysis of Russia’s policy documents on HE digitalisation at national and institutional levels, with the application of the postcolonial theory as a lens. 

The final stage of the project will examine the experiences of Russian academics, involved in online learning desing, in realising state digitalisation plans alongside other key and peripheral actors. By doing so, this project inquiries into the changing function of the academic profession when digital technologies, promoted at national and institutional levels, become indispensable to the educational process.

Research outcomes

MOOCs adoption in Russia

Research problem and context

Scholars argue that, among other educational technologies, MOOCs represent “the most significant technological advance of the millennium in the pedagogic part of higher education” (Teece, 2018, p. 98). It is suggested that MOOCs can revolutionise HE and initiate an educational paradigm shift (Larionova et al., 2018). In the last decade, the Russian HE system has been undergoing transformative changes related to the digitalisation of the whole system (Bekova et al., 2020). The development of online education has been further accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in the introduction of various forms of online learning and educational technologies in national institutions.

Following the strategy of HE digitalisation, Russian educational institutions increasingly introducing the practice of replacing classroom courses with online courses using such national platforms as Universarium, OpenEdX, and Uniweb (Semenova & Rudakova, 2016).  However, still not much is known about the MOOCs and other types of online courses adoption by  Russian academics in their formal teaching (an exception is a recent report by Sukhostavtseva and Rudakov, 2021). Furthermore, although elaborating on the educators’ perspectives regarding the advantages and disadvantages of MOOCs (Zakharova & Tanasenko, 2019) or MOOCs use for professional development (Roshina et al., 2017), past research did not consider the characteristics of academics who already designed their own online courses or are interested in online learning design.

This project examined the “Monitoring of Education Markets and Organisations” 2020 data in relation to three aspects of MOOCs and online courses adoption by Russian HE academics: MOOC use in teaching and in preparation for teaching; online course authorship; and an intent to design their own online courses.

Research outcomes

An Analysis of Online Student Proactive Support

Research problem and context

It is widely recognised that student support is critical for overcoming barriers to learning and ensuring learner engagement, motivation and success in online higher education. Although many support strategies are available for review, there were no attempts to systematically analyse them in relation to the different stages of student learning. As a result, there is a lack of understanding of where and when student support can be embedded into the online learning curriculum. This project aimed to address this issue, and answered the following research question: What support strategies can be offered to online students at different phases of the learning cycle? In doing so, this project developed a framework for embedding support strategies into different stages of the online learning cycle that can be used by online learning designers and educators.

By bringing together research on reported support strategies and interventions, this project aimed to developm a framework for embedding support interventions into different stages of the online learning cycle that can be used by online learning designers and educators.

Research outcomes

Gendered aspects of the phenomenon of precariousness
in UK academic employment contracts

Research problem and context

Part-time and fixed-term employment is becoming increasingly prevalent in academia, as tenured opportunities diminish and university employment practices adapt to a changeable and commercialised market. The available statistical data indicates the increase in the proportion of precarious work and the number of academic staff working in less secure conditions. Althought the gender differences in regard to the type of employement are well-researchered, little is known about the spread of the precariousness phenomenon across functions and the levels of seniority of academics.

 This study adressed the following research questions:

1. What is the current state of the distribution of part-time, fixed-term and zero-hours employment contracts in academia in the UK?
2. Which groups of academics, in regard to their gender, seniority level and academic function, are more likely to be employed on part-time, fixed-term and zero-hours employment conditions?

Research outcomes