Online education in Uzbekistan

Saodat Umarova; Zebo Kudratova

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Umarova Saodat, assistant, Department of Clinical Laboratory Diagnostics,

Samarkand Medical Institute

Kudratova Zebo, assistant, Department of Clinical Laboratory Diagnostics,

Samarkand Medical Institute

ONLINE EDUCATION IN UZBEKISTAN

S. Umarova, Z. Kudratova

Annotation. The learning process is the interaction of the teacher,

student and learning tools. The capabilities of modern computer tools and
information technologies make it possible to assign part of the teacher’s
functions and part of the learner’s functions adopted in the classical form of

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training to teaching aids. The COVID-19 pandemic affected most countries
of the world and almost all spheres of public life, and the education system
was no exception. One of the ways to contain coronavirus infection is still
social exclusion; its measures required the partial or complete closure of
educational institutions and the associated infrastructure.

Keywords: e-learning, Online Education, higher educational institutions,

in a pandemic and modular system.

According to UNESCO, currently more than 1.5 billion students, or 87%

of the total number of students, have been left without schools as part of
efforts to combat the spread of the new coronavirus. In world practice, e-
learning has become an integral part of modern education - it’s just now that
it has turned from optional to necessary [1]. Online education has two main
forms. The first is the courses offered by universities for obtaining an
educational degree, where students undergo training regardless of their
place of stay. Among these,

MIT OpenCourseWare

courses and

Harvard

University online learning

courses are known.

The second form of online education consists of vocational training,

which results in a certificate of completion. Such online training is usually
intended for professionals or students who want to take special training or
prepare for certification exams.

The world practice of spreading the practice of online education and the

latest trends in the field of personnel training indicate the potential role of
this trend in solving a large number of acute socio-economic problems of
developing countries, including Uzbekistan.

Pros and Cons of Online Education
Consider the benefits of online learning, which are as follows:



the ability to provide video lectures with built-in presentations,

interactive tasks and the use of other modern educational technologies;



multimedia short videos with built-in questions and simultaneous

semantic analysis of answers to questions;



easily contact the teacher via chat, mail, forum or audio / video

communications on the platform for distance learning [2];



the impossibility of ramified corruption schemes;



filling the shortage of teachers in those areas that are poorly

developed in individual educational institutions;



Online training makes it easy to choose a convenient time and place

for training, as well as your own pace of classes;



flexibility in terms of task performance in compliance with a certain

time frame;

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

the ability to access a massive open online course (MOOC) in any

environment where there is the possibility of connecting to the Internet;



rapid completion of the course depending on the time devoted to the

study of the course;



training takes place in a more informal setting;



a chance for students from developing countries to gain access to

advanced education from teachers of leading world educational institutions;



Student portfolio data is stored in the system, which makes it possible

to further hire students by interested companies;



the ability to learn a course in many languages at the same time;



the ability to use any online tools;



there is no need for a diploma to participate in the courses;



the possibility of continuous improvement of lifelong skills necessary

for career growth or for changing a profession in the event of structural
changes in the economy;



Many shy people, people with disabilities who find it difficult to

physically advance, find it easier to study online courses.

At the same time, there are some disadvantages of online education,

which should also be noted for the further search for their solutions:



differences in the level of training, culture and language of students;



incompatibility of small seminar classes and personalized feedback;



the student may lack personal contact with the teacher or other

students;



It may take longer to understand materials and assignments during

e-learning.



some students cannot concentrate during lectures, as there is a

temptation to visit social networks;



There is a problem of fraud in the performance of tasks.

Introduction of online education in Uzbekistan
According to World Bank

studies

, education is the strongest tool to

address poverty, improve people's health, increase gender equality, and
ensure peace and stability. A lot has been said about problems in the field of
education, including higher education, and the quality of graduates in
Uzbekistan. A large number of graduates working outside their specialty
testifies to serious problems in the field of higher education.

In such circumstances, the introduction of online education practice

with all the advantages listed above has great potential for solving these
problems by expanding the access of more people to quality education,
including women, people with disabilities, as well as children from poor
families . This is evidenced by the experience of other developing countries,
successfully promoting education based on online principles. On the other

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hand, this can be viewed not only as an opportunity, but also as a necessity
due to the global trends listed above.

Starting from the academic year 2020/2021,

distance learning

was

planned at three higher educational institutions of Tashkent.

It was planned to introduce a new form of training by experiment at the

Tashkent University of Information Technologies named after Muhammad
al-Khwarizmi, Tashkent State Pedagogical University and Tashkent State
Law University.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, online education was

implemented in a much bigger scale and long before the planned date. When
the lockdown started, all the educational institutions starting from primary
schools to higher educational institutions had to go online to guarantee the
safety of the students and staff. School programs

run

on National Television,

making it available for all the pupils all over the country to complete the
school year.

At present, Samarkand Medical Institute also conducts online training

in a modular system. In recent months, the system has been enriched with
information using new modern textbooks, the rector of Samarkand Medical
Institute has created an online library, an information database, and
students can use the online library at any time.

In the case of schools we could see that online education can be not only

through the internet, but also through television. Of course, it was done
taking into consideration the fact that internet outreach is not complete in
all the regions of the country. Since it was successfully organized, Ministry
of Public Education took the

decision

to implement distance learning next

academic year as well.

When it comes to the higher education institutions, all of them had to

switch to the online education, because of the pandemic. So, all the
universities had to finish the academic year online: exams, thesis defenses,
lectures and seminars were taking place online, no matter what the
conditions of the students or teachers was.

Some of the students

highlighted

that Uzbekistan still has to do a lot in

order to advance towards online education. In one of the articles of the local
media, that learnt the opinion of students about distance learning after
coronavirus pandemic started, most of the respondents mentioned that
country is not ready for the distance learning. “Even being in Tashkent,
capital city, I feel that we are not ready for it. It is not about the problems
with the network, it is just the distance learning programs are not well
prepared”.

Pandemic of coronavirus made the educational institutions to switch

into online education almost overnight in Uzbekistan. Taking into
consideration that we are not sure if the pandemic is going to be over soon,