Reflecting on the Experience of Forced Transition to Distance Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The emergency transfer of the educational process to a distance format in March 2020 was stressful for all universities without exception. The Ural Federal University, being the largest educational institution in the region, has done everything possible to provide conditions for the implementation of educational programs in the distance format as soon as possible. The understanding of the need for a radical restructuring of the educational process, on the one hand, united the efforts of the university administration, faculty and students, and on the other hand, caused uneasiness among the participants of the processes and stress for the entire educational system. During the first wave of the pandemic, it was important for the university to ensure the continuity of the educational process, to conduct exams and an admission campaign in an online format. Reflection the first experience of distance learning and the university's systematic approach to the introduction of digital technologies made it possible to overcome the identified problems and adjust the actions of participants to preserve the quality of education during the second wave of the pandemic. The aim of this paper is to study the attitude of the main participants of the educational process to the distance format. The article presents a comparative analysis of the results of surveys of faculty members and students of the Ural Federal University conducted at the beginning of the emergency transition to distance learning and a year later. The research allowed us to study the experience of switching to distance learning at the largest Russian university, as well as to trace changes in the assessments of participants in the educational process of the opportunities and limitations of e-learning and distance learning technologies. The results of the study can be used by other universities to improve the model of the educational process in a distance format.