E-Learning During the War in Ukraine

The impact of war on education is hard to overestimate. Among the war threats witnesses of war [16] mention children and teachers’ displacement as well as educational institutions, psychological trauma, fear and stress and low motivation to study as a consequence, social justice violation, brain drain, limited access to educational resources, decreasing the number of the academic hours. Regarding the Ukrainian context, we have to add teaching and studying on temporarily occupied territories according to the curricular and educational standards of the country-aggressor [15] and community resilience toward the forced education; massive deportation of students and teachers to the territories of the country-aggressor; integration of propaganda into the education process and as a results distortion of the history and facts, signs of the genocide and the elimination of the national identity.

Many Ukrainian educators find it difficult to maintain psychological balance and stay resourceful, however, helping students, and participating in educational and scientific projects and conferences is one of the ways to bring meaning to life, make it full and rich even during the war. This war has altered our lives and, to some extent, brought them to a halt. Under the influence of military operations, everyone’s priorities have shifted. They have put their own safety ahead of everything else. Processes and types of activities, including educational ones, have been interjected. However, the Ukrainians banded together quickly, and, albeit slowly, practically all activity scopes were launched. In cases of critical situations, e-learning is one of the few training systems still available for the educational process. Educational strategies have been modified to improve students’ success. E-learning strategies are based on some of the well-known learning theories such as behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism [14]. Their combination, which is present in all e-learning, works well in learning and teaching processes and is aimed at students with varying characteristics.

In general, e-learning focuses on solving the problems raised by the peculiarities and differences of individual learners, on providing an opportunity to organize comfortable conditions for learning and, in some cases, on enabling education itself, e.g., when the country is at war or when there are simply no other options left. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak and the start of the active phase of war on the Ukrainian territory, teachers only used ICT tools “from time to time” (as needed) and in a limited amount. Their arsenal has been far too limited. Moodle and Google Drive have emerged as the most popular among teachers. In fact, we see how universities are stepping up their efforts to make all of their educational content available online. We come across the free use of educational and methodological resources developed by teachers in some places. However, there are still educational resources to which students of their own higher educational institution have limited or no access. Teachers continue to select platforms for hosting educational resources (Moodle, Classroom, Edmodo and so on) or use those provided by the university administration. Accordingly, the demand for internet technologies and cloud technology tools (web services) has increased significantly [13].

Ukraine is concerned about the age and competence of both technical support and teaching staff. Both are critical not only for the ability to organize, implement and support the educational process during critical situations (the pandemic and the Ukrainian war) but also for the teachers’ motivation to possess and share the stable productivity of their knowledge that they provide to students [8]. These horrifying factors for any educational process are actually compelling reasons to join the community of 100% distance learning. A significant part of the teachers’ work involves creating effective online courses, conducting classes through online video conferences (Zoom, Google Meet, etc.), recording video lessons, producing lecture (presentation) material, developing online tests [12], keeping electronic journals, etc. Furthermore, the teachers’ experience and abilities in the e-learning process differ [10]. This transition has presented difficulties not only for teachers [7] but also for students, who are acutely aware of the lack of live communication [5]. This is a pressing issue that must be addressed as soon as possible by educational institution administrations, as it has the potential to negatively (and irreversibly) affect the students’ psychological states.

The e-learning process creates a compulsion for new teachers’ competencies based on the teachers’ personal self-development and the search for new educational theories, methods and teaching techniques as the ICT foundation [12]. Undoubtedly, every modern teacher needs electronic tools, especially as popular web services expand opportunities and allow for the creation of a specific learning climate (environment) in which students study the learning material more easily and teachers work better with students who are not disinterested in learning subjects. Web services have a greater and more complex potential, and they are regarded as an important building block in the development of a modern competent specialist (teacher). Many scientists have proven this based on their findings. Such blocks aid in the resolution of educational issues. They help competitive specialists in developing important competencies. The teachers’ opportunities to organize classes are constantly expanding as a result of them, while the students’ opportunities to complete tasks assigned to them are increasing.

It goes without saying that a substantial number of studies establishing the e-learning potential during the pandemic have already been conducted [9], but they have not investigated issues concerning the effectiveness of e-learning in war zones [4,11,17,19], as such type of learning is a promising means of expanding access to the educational system and improving student progress in higher educational programs [1,6]. However, any e-learning that engages students in project-based learning, teamwork and flipped learning shows an enhanced positive impact on student learning effectiveness as a modern field of interest, using playful and cooperative learning methods.

It should be noted that the impact of war and violent conflict on education not only reduces the effectiveness of learning environment organization but also has a significant impact on student educational achievement. Thus, Brück et al. [3] presented the effects of war on education during a time of intense violence between Israelis and Palestinians. Despite the difficulties, the educational system is attempting to continue the learning process and gives young people the opportunity to gain knowledge, which pleases everyone. Brück et al.’s data [3] provide evidence that the war has an effect on the end result — knowledge. In addition, the quality of the learning environment is an important factor. The attention of scientists is focused on the consequences of war, which is the destruction of educational infrastructure, which causes the deterioration of psychological, physical, social, cognitive and emotional states and can demotivate participants in education. However, these are not the only disadvantages that war brings to children and students, and they will vary depending on the specific circumstances. Brück and his colleagues’ work [2] focuses on the perseverance of Ukrainian youth who take a difficult path to education and attend schools and universities while their country is at war [2]. They investigate the implementation of the educational process during hostilities as well, pointing to the reduced effectiveness of the wartime environment and student anxiety.

Being able to receive education in a secure environment is critical. As a result, the experience of researching the effectiveness of e-learning during combat remains the only true solution. Najran University has switched to e-learning due to the long war between Saudi Arabia, the Arab Coalition and Yemeni rebels and has concluded that this was one of the best decisions [18]. Thus, Rajab, in his study [18], describes the potential benefits of e-learning in war zones for a given region. He emphasizes the lack of a distinction between e-learning and traditional learning. With his findings, he demonstrated that e-learning can achieve its stated educational goals while also organizing a safe learning environment. Currently, scientists and teachers in Ukraine are debating the types, forms and methods of continuing the educational process in educational buildings during the country’s hostilities. The administration of educational institutions is required to prepare and set up safe conditions (bomb shelters) in the event of a rocket or bomb attack, allowing students and pupils to receive education safely.

At the same time, the challenge of e-learning implementation in Ukraine, remains poorly studied. There are many publicly available scientific studies that consider only one critical situation (a pandemic), forcing educational institutions to use e-learning rather than traditional methods. In this case, the challenge of implementing e-learning in other critical situations, such as wartime, necessitates additional research.