E-learning: will distance education replace traditional one?

Many experts in education agree that training students for the future, modern high school uses educational technologies of the past. That is why many students voluntarily refuse to attend full-time sessions and opt for remote education in order to acquire necessary professional skills without leaving home. The authors of this article carried out a study of students' reasoning for mastering the undergraduate and graduate educational programs, as well as advanced training and retraining in the short-term and medium-term courses and trainings. The study showed that the following groups of learners chose the distance education as a technology of mastering necessary knowledge and skills: (i) students combining studies and work; (ii) students from outlying localities; (iii) students receiving the second higher professional education and therefore of older age; (iv) attendees of refresher and professional retraining courses and (v) students with disabilities. Each of these categories is characterized by their features of motivation and organization of the educational process on the basis of remote technologies. There are a number of restrictions (primarily of legislative nature) that forbid to entirely shift from full-time training to remote one. However, the activity of Russian universities, modern worldwide trends and the demand for distance learning from the target groups of learners allow us to predict the change in legislation and the increase of e-learning hours in the educational programs.