Search

The inclusion of computer mediation and distance education has influenced the training of future mining engineers in Kuzbass universities. This study investigates the issues of students’ interaction in multicultural groups within Computer Supported Collaborative Learning. CSCL served as a conceptual framework to guide the presented study. Forty-eight Russian and Indian students participated in the experiment. To assess the peer interaction in multicultural groups four questionnaires were designed. The authors used comparative analysis to analyze the interviews of the participants. To process the data, the Pearson’s correlation analysis was performed. In the result of comparative analysis of the participants’ interviews some conclusions on students’ interaction in multicultural class were done. Foreign students demonstrate positive attitude towards collaborative learning activities while one in two Russian students displays reluctance and frustration in relation to cross-cultural collaborative learning environment. The results suggest that the main challenges for implementation of CSCL in higher education institutions of Kuzbass are insufficient cross-cultural skills of students and even teachers and the lowquality digital infrastructure of universities.

Distance education, which opens up a new era of digitalization and sustainable development of the society, is gaining momentum today. However, a vast array of challenges comes up when online interaction in which student and teacher are engaged fully replaces communication in traditional classroom. This paper seeks to contribute to the advantages of face-to-face learning, as perceived by the international mining students. The data have been collected from the open format questionnaires fulfilled by the overseas students who came to study mining engineering at the university of Kuzbass. The qualitative content analysis and, subsequently, the researchers’ interpretation of the data reveals that students observe various features related to student teacher interaction in online and offline settings. Notably, these features correlate to the variables constituting the core of pedagogical interaction: performance, motivation, communication, cognition, emotions, physical state, and temporal dimension.

The paper covers the concept of innovative approaches in education based on incorporating MOOCs options into traditional classroom. It takes a look at the ways higher education instructors working with the mining engineers enrolled in advanced training programmes can brighten, upgrade and facilitate the learning process. The shift of higher education from in-class to online format has changed the learning environment and the methods of teaching including professional retraining courses. In addition, the need of mining companies for managers of a new kind obligates high school retraining centres rapidly move towards the 21st century skill framework. One of widely recognized innovations in the sphere of e-learning is MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) that can be used as an effective teaching tool for organizing professional training of managing staff of mining companies within the walls of a university. The authors share their instructional experience and show the benefits of introducing MOOCs options at the courses designed for retraining mining engineers and senior managers of coal enterprises. Though in recent researches the pedagogical value of MOOCs is highly questioned and even negated this invention of the 21st century can become an essential and truly helpful instrument in the hands of educators.