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Arctic Yearbook 2014
The main technological characteristics of distance education is a Learning Management System
(LMS), a Course Management System (CMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It is
software used for delivering, tracking and managing training/education. LMSs range from systems
for managing training/educational records to software for distributing courses over the Internet and
offering features for online collaboration (Mahnegar, 2012). Blackboard is one of the leading
commercial LMS software packages used by North American and European universities. Educators
have other opportunities as well. Moodle is a course management system. It is a free web application
that educators can use to create effective online learning sites (The website of Moodle). Many
institutions, in particular, in Russia are developing their own LMS, sometimes using open source
approaches.
As has been discussed, there are two primary types of distance learning activities: asynchronous
learning and synchronous learning. Synchronous is live or “real time”, participants are all logged in
and communicating at the same time. Adobe Connect webinar or online chat are examples.
Asynchronous is not live or “not real-time”, participants log in and communicate at different times
depending on what is most convenient to them. Online individual, team, and whole group
discussions are examples (Hopkins 2010).
Distance education uses interactive telecommunication tools as primary or adjunctive media to
promote learning. These tools may take various forms, including groupware programs (such as
Webex and Skype); teleconferencing applications; web camcorders; presentation applications (such
as Powerpoint); and learning management systems (such as Blackboard/WebCT, Plateau, eCollege,
Flex Training, Travantis, Lectora, and Moodle) (Pajarillo 2012).
Web-based distance learning environments use course management systems, portals, and custom
designed Web-pages to deliver instructional-learning modules to students at their convenience.
Social networking, collective decision making, and blogging types of applications should be
incorporated into the current Web 1.0-based course management systems. The Blackboard course
management system improves learning by highlighting increased communication between the
professor and students, cooperation among students, immediate feedback, and acknowledgement of
the diverse ways of learning among students.
E-learning environments are at a crossroads. They can continue to expand the use of course
management systems that provide the standard plate of offerings (i.e., notes, assignments, quizzes,
multiple-choice tests, discussion boards, and chat rooms), or they can create interactive learning
environments that provide modeling, engaging activities, assessment of student performance, and
immediate feedback using intelligent tutorial technologies (Wijekumar 2010).
Distance Education in Russia
The Russian Federation Distance Technologies
The education in Russian rural and remote areas of the North has a lot of problems. It may be that
to many inhabitants of the Russian Federation, especially in the rural parts, the idea of having access
to the Internet seems rather unreal, or utopian. At present, for many people in Russia Internet
Distance Education in the Northern Regions of Russia