This is a study of how vocational education was transformed to deal with social distancing due to
coronavirus infection in the Russian Federation. Data was taken from online delivery platforms such
as Coursera, Timepad, and Edumarket. The demand for educational courses in Russia increased by
2.5 times in the first half of 2020 due to the spread of COVID-19. Despite this only 19% of learners
are prepared to continue their learning after the quarantine measures are lifted. In the first half of
2020 programs on these platforms were focused on soft skills. There was an increase in programs for
stress resistance, leadership, productivity, business, hobbies and art, parent-child relationships, and
foreign language learning. The proportion of programs reliant on social communications decreased
significantly. However, there was an increase courses in IT (blog / website development, machine
learning), and medicine (ensuring safety in case of coronavirus infection, prevention of COVID-19,
etc.). The study is of interest to the heads of regional educational departments, specialists of the
continuing education in universities, professional educational organizations, non-governmental
organizations of continuing education, labor exchange and those who are involved in continuing
education and self-learning.
Keyword(s) : distance education
Students’ Mathematics Achievements: A Comparison between Pre- and Post-COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic represented a shift from face-to-face to online and distance learning.
Teaching methods and assessing strategies changed, as well as grading standards. The focus of
this paper is to address the differences between pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic mathematics
grades and, in particular, to investigate the possible differences between mid-term and end-term
grades in Italy. To this end, 231 Italian middle and high school students’ grades were analysed.
Using the Wilcoxon rank test (a non-parametric statistical test) the results showed a statistically
significant difference in pre- and post-COVID-19 quarantine grades. End-of-year grades were
higher than those before the COVID-19 confinement. Furthermore, the results indicated that
more than half of the students in the sample achieved a higher grade at the end of the school year.
Gender differences in mathematics grades were examined, since the literature about gender gap
in mathematics achievement is not coherent about whether boys outperform girls or vice versa.
Statistically significant differences at the end of the first semester were reported, in favour of female
students although gender differences were not detected at the end of the school year. The findings
suggest that greater caution should be paid in interpreting students’ grades pre- and post-COVID-19
confinement, since it cannot be excluded that such students’ achievements are inflated. Excessively
high students’ grades that do not represent their actual knowledge and competencies could give
educators and legislators misleading and even false information about the quality of distance
learning and students’ knowledge.
From Challenges to Opportunities: Reorganization of Teacher Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Post-Socialist Countries
Although the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, there is no doubt that education researchers
will analyze the changes in teaching and learning over the years to come. There is no certainty that
new waves and variants of COVID-19 will not force humanity to radically change educational
technologies in the future. This will bring mankind closer to the predictions of science-fiction
authors and futurists, not taken seriously before. In this regard, it is important to scientifically
document and analyze various measures for transforming education in the current situation, thus,
creating the database for future generations. Analysis reveals that geographically adjacent countries
with numerous current or historical interrelations, show the uniqueness of their response to the
pandemic because of a number of current economic, social, cultural and geographical factors.
Quite promising in this regard are the post-socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe,
which in the second half of the 20th century had almost identical principles for developing national
education systems, but changed significantly under the influence of the reforms of the last thirty
years. Comparing the cases of five universities from Russia, Germany, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic
and the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic enable us, not only to identify common problems, but
also to describe the most effective measures for the reorganization of higher education during the
COVID-19 pandemic, dictated by the need to sustain the quality of teacher training.