R.R. Khadiullina¹,
M.I. Galyautdinov²

¹Senior lecturer of department of physics and mathematics and information technology,
²C. of ph-m.s, associate professor, head of department of physics and mathematics and information technology
Volga Region State Academy of Physical Culture, Sport and Tourism, Kazan, Russia

Key words: distance learning, student athletes, conceptual bases.

The institutes of higher physical education do not always cope with the task of training highly qualified athletes, who possess not only practical professional skills, but also a sufficient store of theoretical knowledge, creative abilities, and skills in handling up-to-date techniques for continuing their professional activity as trainers, for example.

Team practice sessions and competitions of different levels force student-athletes to spend most part of the learning process far from the educational institution. This problem can be solved by creating and implementing (in the conditions of virtual educational environment in the institutes of higher physical education) such a model of educational process which would combine both traditional and remote training technologies. This would make it possible for students of different modes of study (full-time, full-time according to individual curricula, and part-time) to combine sports with education.

The developed model of virtual educational environment is based on the ecological and student-centered (V.A. Yasvin) and the ecological and psychological (V.I. Panov) models of the educational environment. The teaching of Physics and Computer Science is taken as an example. According to the above models, the structure of VEE, its components, and the dynamic connections and relations between them are in correspondence with the interests of student-athletes and with the features of their socio-cultural environment, educational and training processes, etc. This model consists of numerous interconnected blocks: motivational-and-objective, content-related, organizational-and-technological, and evaluative-and-effective. Together these blocks reveal the objective, tasks, didactic conditions, organization principles and technologies, efficiency evaluation criteria and levels of the VEE model.

The constructed VEE model aims to form motivation and need for educational and communicative activity in student-athletes; to acquire basic knowledge, skills and competence in Physics and Computer Science, to acquire abilities to apply information technologies in educational and communicative activity. This model is assumed to contribute to improvement of the process of education of students-athletes in the institutes of higher physical education.

Introduction. The specificity of studying in the institutes of higher physical education consists in the fact that student-athletes have to study distantly most of the time. The reason for that is their training for and participation in competitions of different kinds. The way out of this situation is to transfer the corresponding category of student-athletes to an individual training program, mostly realized in the distance form.

Distance learning (DL) implies not only the use of modern information and communications technologies in educational process, but also the learner-centered orientation and the differentiated approach to the formation and realization of educational process for students of different study modes (full-time, full-time according to individual curricula, and part-time).

Distance learning concentrates on the formation of self-educational skills and abilities to use information and communications technologies, which later on allow student-athletes to master various disciplines on their own. Thus, we can speak about the necessity of formation of independent educational activity and about the importance of formation of the ability to apply the received theoretical knowledge in further professional career.

The purpose of our research is to determine the objective, tasks, characteristic features, and common and specific didactic principles of the distance training of student-athletes as well as the conceptual foundations of its application in the institutes of higher physical education.

Materials and methods. To study the set problem, we analyzed legislative and regulatory documents, psychological and pedagogical literature, and teaching materials. The experimental work was carried out with the students of full-time, part-time departments and according to individual curricula at the Faculty of Physical Training and Sports (Volga Region State Academy of Physical Training, Sports and Tourism).

Results and Discussion. The design of the distance form of educational process in the institutes of higher physical education is based on the following legislative and regulatory documents: the Federal Law “On Education in the Russian Federation” No. 273-FL of 29.12.2012 [6], the Concept of Creation of a Unified System of Distance learning in Russia [4], and the Russian Federal Law “On the Use of Distance Educational Technologies” [5] and some others.

By adapting the basic provisions of these legislative and regulatory documents for training process of student-athletes in the institutes of higher physical education, the main objective of DL can be determined as providing student-athletes with equal educational opportunities irrespective of the study mode (full-time, according to individual curricula, and part-time).

The main tasks of DL are: 1) support of academic and educational activity of a student-athlete; 2) organization of unassisted educational activity of a student-athlete; 3) organization of individual educational trajectory for a student-athlete (depending on the intensity of practical training).

The DL process of student-athletes has the following characteristic features:

• Flexibility. Student-athletes studying full-time according to individual curricula or part-time do not basically attend in-class lectures and seminars, but work distantly, whenever convenient to them, in convenient places and regimes, forming individual educational trajectories. An individual educational trajectory implies not only the difference in the time of the study of disciplines, but also some differences in the way of their presentation, the learning process and the means of control of the gained knowledge, abilities, skills and competences.
• Modularity. The DL programs are based on the modular principle, which implies not only the formation of an educational program from a series of independent course-modules, but also the construction of the whole course from individual independent part-modules. The modular principle enables forming programs and courses according to individual or group needs, features of the chosen specialty, study schedule, training and competition processes, etc.
• Economic efficiency. A part of the educational process of a student-athlete is carried out distantly, which does not require the presence of a professor in the lecture room. The DL technologies in this case are aimed at a larger number of students and contribute to reduction of expenditures associated with functioning of educational areas and technical equipment.
• A new role of professor. Professor acquires such functions as coordination of educational process, correction of the taught course, consulting while forming individual curricula, supervision of training projects, etc. Professor and students can interact in the on-line or off-line modes (synchronous and asynchronous interaction), depending on situation and educational trajectory.
• Specialized control of education quality. Progress control can be carried out entirely on a remote basis in the form of test works. Final control (examinations, course works and design works) are realized mostly in class.
• The use of special technologies and methods of training. This feature implies the use of certain methods, forms and techniques of interaction with a student in the process of independent but controlled acquisition of particular skills.
• The basis on the modern means of educational information transmission, such as necessary training and teaching materials, connection between the subjects of educational process (students, professors, trainers, department of information technologies, and administration), exchange of administrative information inside the DL system, access to international information networks, involvement of foreign colleagues in the DL system.

The conceptual basis of DL is determined by both its characteristic features and the didactic principles it is relied upon. The didactic principles (or teaching principles) are guidelines for teaching and, according to S.I. Arkhangel’sky’s definition, “these are recommendations that rule the educational activity and training process as a whole; these are means of achieving educational goals taking into account the mechanisms and conditions of training and educational process; these are the system of general and fundamentally important guidelines which determine the content, methods and organization of education and the means of analysis of its results” [2, p. 146].

The most complete classification of didactic principles can be presented (according to A.A. Zolotarev) in the following form: 1) general principles (humanization of education, reliance on science, development, systematization); 2) principles related to the goals and content of education (compliance of the goals and content of education with the Federal State Educational Standards; integrity and completeness); 3) principles covering didactic process and the relevant educational system with its elements (correspondence between didactic process and educational regularities; leading role of theoretical knowledge; unity of educational, instructional and developmental functions of education; stimulation of and motivation for the positive attitude towards education; combination of collective training activities with the individual approach in education; combination of the abstractedness of thinking with the use of visual methods in education; students’ deliberateness, activity and self-reliance; consistency and systematic character in education; availability; stability in the results of learning of educational material, etc.) [7]. All the listed general didactic principles belong to the traditional training system. However, specialists in the teaching methods of distance learning believe that these principles can be successfully applied in distance learning as well, but they require certain complements and clarifications.

Thus, we agree with A.A. Andreev that in relation to distance learning, the principle of humanization of education is the most important and voluminous of all general didactic principles [1]. The principle of humanization of DL in the institutes of higher physical education manifest itself in the fact that student-athletes have an opportunity to fully participate in educational process irrespective of training practice intensity and students’ physical abilities. Student-athletes with disabilities have favorable, safe and comfortable conditions for learning activity and an opportunity to form their own individual educational trajectory.

Beside the general didactic principles, A.A. Andreev suggest considering the specific principles typical for DL [1]. Let us analyze them and make certain amendments taking into account the specificity of the educational process of a student-athlete.

Principle of interactivity (interaction and communication not only between professors and students, but also between all subjects of educational process including trainers, information technologies department, and administration);

• Principle of initial knowledge (necessity of initial abilities and skills in the use of information technologies for realizing independent learning activity on a distant platform when studying other disciplines);
• Principle of individualization (dependence of an individual educational trajectory on both the intensity of practical training and the study mode of a student-athlete);
• Principle of identification (control of self-reliance is provided both at in-class consultations and though video conference connection);
• Principle of regulated education (this principle have vague limits due to the peculiarities and the unregulated nature of students’ participation in competitions);
• Principle of educational reasonability of using up-to-date information technologies (necessity or, on the contrary, inadvisability of using up-to-date information technologies by student-athletes depend on such factors as specialty and number of hours required for studying a discipline). important of all other general principles

It is proposed to add the following principles to the above ones: the principle of orientation towards self-learning (aiming of student-athletes at self-educational activity, possible due to the formed skills of information processing and communications technologies); the principle of modularity (division of educational material into separate parts according to the particular modules).

It is necessary to pay special attention to the principles that can be applied in both practical training and educational process. These principles influence the general orientation and determine the personality of a student-athlete: the principle of orientation towards high achievements (aspiration to better results) and the principle of progression (gradual severization of requirements against firmly fixed ones).

The proposed clarifications and additions to the didactic principles of DL are in agreement with the basic provisions of the Concept of Distance learning based on Computer Telecommunications, developed by E.S. Polat, A.E. Petrov, Yu.V. Aksenov [3] and used in our research. The educational foundations of the concept of distance learning described by these authors are adapted for student-athletes and presented in the adapted form in conclusions.

Conclusions.

1. The process of distance learning of a student-athlete is centered on his or her independent cognitive activity (not teaching, but learning). A student learns not only to find information, but also to use it for the construction of educational and training processes, forming an individual educational trajectory.

2. The educational system based on remote technologies enables acquiring knowledge wherever and whenever convenient to an athlete.

3. The use of modern teaching technologies contributes to the development of the inner potential of each student-athlete, at the same time forming social qualities of a person.

4. Individual educational trajectory does not rule out, but, on the contrary, implies the presence of communication between all participants of educational process: student-athletes, professors, trainers, information technologies department, and administration.

5. The system of control of knowledge acquisition, the means of cognitive activity, the ability to use the obtained knowledge and skills in various problem situations must be of a systematic nature and be based on both prompt feedback and delayed control.

References

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2. Arkhangel’sky, S.I. Lectures on the theory of learning in higher education: study guide. – Moscow: Vysshaya Shkola 1974. -384 P. (In Russian)
3. To the concept of distance learning: Collected research works (MIEM) / A.E. Petrov [et al.], ed. by E.S. Polat //Moscow: 1997. (In Russian)
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