ONLINE SERVICES AND APPLICATIONS IN HIGHER EDUCATIONAL SETTING

The article deals with the issue of introducing online services and other applications into university programmes. Google Drive, Google Apps, Google Hangoutchat, RealtimeBoard facilitate cooperative partnerships, collaborative learning and digital competences of students, in particular future Public Relations professionals. It is assumed that the greater a student's involvement in the collaboration process is, the greater their motivation is and the stronger their ability to develop creative skills and discover innovative approaches to accomplish tasks is. The project is initiated by two Russian universities with the expertise in collaborative work in blended and online-based learning environments. The aim of the study is to explore the effectiveness of apps in education and the specific challenges of implementing courses in such an environment. The research is divided into three consecutive parts: 1) a literature review on the foundations of online collaboration, 2) an assessment of good practice examples of online services and applications, 3) a comparison of students' learning outcomes by splitting them into control and experimental groups. The control group attended a normal class which combined traditional classroom methods with online educational material and opportunities for students to interact online. The experimental group was educated online and used offered online services and apps to full extend. Both groups obtained very good results after the experiment; however, their learning outcomes presented some identifying differences. Our work has led us to the conclusion that in order to improve teaching effectiveness, educational institutions should consider aiming at implementation of state-of-the-art web services that create new class environment where the teacher is assigned a role of a coacher and students become more engaged and cooperative.