Reliability and quality of distance learning technical education in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: Practice and issues

The covid-19 pandemic, which was announced in March 2020, has made significant changes in all spheres of society, the state and the world in general. A quick restructuring of many structures, processes and mechanisms was required. The education system is no exception. The educational process was modernized, a large number of new technologies were introduced and the existing mechanisms were improved. So, in the conditions of the forced transition to training using distance educational technologies in the spring of 2020, it becomes necessary to assess the quality of the functioning of educational software in the higher technical education system. This article is aimed at researching and analysing the practical and theoretical aspects of the use of distance learning technologies in order to determine the correspondence of the quality of distance learning to the traditional form of full-time education. The authors of the article pay attention to the possible prospects for the development of distance learning within the technical education system in the Russian Federation, not only as a response to changing epidemiological conditions, but also as a potentially alternative form of education. The study assesses the success of using software systems, identifies the advantages and disadvantages of the existing system of distance education. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.