Marketing and education: directions of distance learning development

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced educational institutions to urgently introduce distance learning (DL), which has resulted in an unprecedented experiment in the sphere of higher education in Ukraine that requires scientific analysis. The aim of the work was to identify the possible potential directions of DL development in institutions of higher education as a result of marketing research of satisfaction/dissatisfaction of students with DL. The survey method was used in the study. The results of marketing research (an online survey of students) (Kharkiv, 2020, n = 316) allowed the authors to identify the factors of satisfaction and dissatisfaction of students with DL. Students considered the most important factors of satisfaction with DL as follows: development of competencies, self-organization, discipline, self-motivation, responsibility, taking an active position as participants of the educational process, comfort. Students expect that lectures secure improvement of teacher-student communication process; flexibility of educational approaches; use of interactive tools and constant change of activities to maintain the attention, interest, concentration of students on studying process. The latter will maximize students’ involvement in activities during training; improvement of digital competencies. The students` expectations are: flexibility of the DL platforms compared to full-time in-person education; creation of the “map” of the educational process in a distance mode. It is noted that the results of marketing research (the online survey) demonstrated the factors of satisfaction and dissatisfaction of students with DL. This information was considered as the arguments for identifying the possible potential directions of DL development in higher education institutions.