IGIP Prototype Curriculum, Teachers’ Professional Development and Distance Education in Russia During COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

IGIP Prototype Curriculum pays special attention to the development of the ability of engineering university teachers to use effectively technical aids, information and communication technologies (ICT). In Russia, there are various additional professional programs for the same purpose. The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic caused closures of engineering universities of many countries including Russia for the spring semester 2020. Since the end of March 2020 in Moscow Automobile and Road Construction State Technical University (MADI), all the teaching has been taking place remotely/online. The situation of this large-scale natural experiment gives the opportunity to analyze its results and to try to find answers to numerous questions. The paper is devoted to the survey of the attitude of MADI foreign language teachers and students towards distance learning technologies. The survey identifies the distance technologies used, the opinion of the respondents of their efficiency, the difficulties the respondents faced during remote educational process, the respondents’ opinion of the prospects of distance technologies in foreign language training, the differences and similarities of the attitudes of foreign language teachers and students.