TEACHERS' IT TRAINING AS AN IMPORTANT ELEMENT IN EDUCATIONAL PROCESS

摘要

The Faculty of Distance Learning (FDL) of Plekhanov Russian University of Economics has been involved in providing different programmes, based on ICT, for more than a decade. This ranges from the fully-fledged Bachelor and Specialist Degree distance education to short-term vocational training and upgrading courses, and consequently great experience in designing and developing educational digital resources has been accumulated. However, today's full-time 'digital' students also expect their education to include technology, as they have become inseparable with their gadgets and devices. So the need to adapt and integrate ICT into the traditional education has become increasingly apparent. But blended learning requires new competences from the teachers and also their close cooperation with programmers and other technical staff. That leads to changes in traditionally individualistic academic culture bringing about the necessity to work in teams, allocate roles and responsibilities for the courses design, teaching and assessment.