DISTANCE LEARNING OF «HISTORY OF NINETEENTH-CENTURY FOREIGN LITERATURE» COURSE IN THE CONTEXT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC: EDUCATORS’ EXPERIENCES

The paper deals with the peculiarities of the educational process in higher education institutions in a distance learning environment. The experience of teaching “History of Nineteenth-Century Foreign Literature” e-course at the Faculty of Philology and Journalism of Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University under pandemic conditions has been presented. It has been shown that under quarantine restrictions, distance learning is the most appropriate and effective form of training. It has been proved that the efficiency of distance learning increases with the use of e-courses, developed on MOODLE digital learning platform. The specificity of structuring the electronic course “History of Nineteenth-Century Foreign Literature”, taking into account the peculiarities of a professional training profile of a philology student, has been revealed. The study has demonstrated that Generation Z students prefer creative, atypical and clearly structured educational material, which motivates them to independent learning, activates their intellectual potential, forms the skills of original approach to the literary and artistic phenomena analysis, develops critical thinking and informational competence of a future philology teacher. The methods of using such tools as networking, online educational platforms and media resources in the learning process have been highlighted. Specific forms of work as completing an online dictionary of literary terms, performing individual research in the form of a creative work; writing a final test in the form of an essay, and delivering lectures - “literary battles” have been characterized. Particular attention has been focused on the performance of creative assignments and examples of students’ projects. The study has proved that under COVID-19 pandemic both groups of stakeholders – philology students and educators have benefited from using the course “History of Nineteenth-Century Foreign Literature” via the e-learning platform Moodle.

For a year now, global community has been taking various measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). There is no doubt, that in March 2020, secondary and higher education institutions found themselves in a difficult situation, because the introduction of quarantine measures caused the immediate transition to distance learning [8]. Consequently, the administration of education institutions faced the task of effective (and rapid!) organization of alternative learning process on the one hand, while educators had to select optimal technologies, tools, methods and techniques appropriate for this model of education on the other one.
It goes without saying, that educators, unprepared to such challenge and work with distance learning tools, found themselves in a kind of force majeure situation. In fact, "the efficiency of students' work depends not on the number of hours for studying the disciplines, not on the material and technical basis, but on the teacher, his/her ability to work with the abovementioned technologies" The problem of distance and blended learning has become a top priority for the academic and pedagogical community [1; 3; 7; 9; 12] Active implementation of these forms of learning is largely related to psycho-physiological characteristics of today's youth. Contemporary generation was born and has been grown up at a time of powerful technological innovations and development. Network communications and social networks (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook etc.), as well as other popular media resources (YouTube), were decisive factors in the process of Gen Zers' values shaping and life goals setting. This is, in fact, the first digital generation that has unlimited interests and educational opportunities [10].
Modern society is aware that information explosion has changed the way knowledge is transmitted and gained. It is true, that today it is almost impossible to teach someone, but it is quite possible to teach yourself. Therefore, the main task of education is to increase interest and motivation in acquiring not only and not so much knowledge, but most importantly, practical skills and competencies that will enable to be competitive among the jobs, that today's influential people predict, could provide around 800 million workplaces by 2030.
Nowadays, a variety of online educational platforms offer alternative to conventional (fact-toface) teaching methods. On such online platforms, students can watch video lectures, delivered by the world leading experts; discuss issues of interest in a forum; test acquired skills through numerous interactive tasks and quizzes; take all the necessary tests; and, finally, receive a desired certificate. Thus, we have to realise that data accumulation and personalisation, educational process adaptability and rapid ability to change it, recognising incorrect actions and tasks, including those of the lecturer's, all things that online platforms offer today, seriously compete with higher education institutions during the pandemic. Thus, the introduction of quarantine restrictions has clarified the main challenges of modern education -modelling a student's individual learning trajectory, creating his/her individual background, forming "learning to learn" ability (ability of life-long education), stimulating divergent thinking, which means seeking new alternative approaches (solutions, pathways) to a problem, as well as developing critical thinking and the ability to interpret everything what is going on around them [2; 5].
Considering these factors, the teaching staff of Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University actively implements the latest information and communication technologies into the learning process, which facilitate the introduction of creative, non-standard, atypical approaches to teaching material that, in its turn, is clearly structured and presented in blocks. It is the very kind of presentation of learning material that can interest today's student. It should be noted, that in January 2010 the university teaching staff underwent an internship in the course "Methods of creating e-courses in MOODLE system" with a total academic load of 36 hours, and in January 2015 training in the course "Distance online learning technologies" was held. In addition, the university has a database of electronic courses of disciplines (posted on the educational portal of TNPU), a programme of counselling and online seminars. Distance Learning Centre was activated. After the announcement of quarantine measures and the transition to distance and blended forms of learning, the Distance Learning Centre constantly conducts various trainings and seminars on the development of digital competence of the lecturers, and effective organization of the educational process in the face of a pandemic. All of this together had an impact on the effectiveness of the quarantine learning process.
The purpose of the paper is to highlight Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University lecturers' experience in teaching «History of Foreign Literature of the XIX century» electronic course in a pandemic.
Under pandemic conditions, the use of the e-course «History of Nineteenth-Century Foreign Literature» has greatly facilitated this subject learning. The course under discussion is intended for full-time and part-time second-year students of the Faculty of Philology, TNPU. The number of hours depends on the form of study. Thus, 22 hours of lectures, 24 hours of seminars and 44 hours of independent work are provided for full-time students. For part-time students, 4 hours of lectures, 6 hours of seminars and 80 hours of independent work are allocated. Moreover, this subject is also taught to Foreign Language Faculty students. The allocation of hours is as follows: 12 hours of lectures, 6 seminars, 27 hours of independent work. Such variety complicates the lecturer's educational and methodological work, because regardless of the number of hours, future teachers of philology should be quite knowledgeable in the peculiarities of Romanticism and Realism, understand the national specifics of Romantic and Realist traditions in different countries, be aware of the key representatives of these movements and their work.
Literature of the 19 th century is a special period in the history of literature. At that time, reading books was the most important and popular form of pastime for educated people. There was a lot of writing and long texts, as most readers had enough time to read such large texts. The 19 th century's literary man was often the master of the minds of a whole generation. In the 20 th century, a poet or writer could never become the leader of social ideas and the sole spokesman for the feelings of an entire generation.
Therefore, it is very important to introduce all the above-mentioned aspects to philology students and to show them how to use ICT in their future teaching activities and at the same time to teach the school course of foreign literature in an informative, meaningful and interesting way. The use of the e-learning course has helped us to achieve all these objectives, as students were able to learn the discipline on their own; to complete assignments remotely; to choose the pace and scope of learning material independently; to provide a personal schedule. One cannot but agree that «Electronic learning through the Internet and wireless technologies like mobiles have changed many traditional contexts like previous face to face communication, information accessing, and so on. Naturally, native digitals and those who adopt these technologies to their daily lives cannot put these aside in their education» [4, p. 5].
Learning Management System MOODLE (from Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment), developed by the Australian Martin Dougiamas, delivers distance learning online. The main objectives of the system lie in enhancing learning opportunities, learning remotely, designing self-paced online courses in different areas, submitting assignments and sending them to the educator for checking, sending messages, maintaining an electronic grade and attendance register etc. The basic principles of this software product can be formulated with the following characteristics: reusability; adaptability (possibility to complement the platform with other information technologies); accessibility (possibility to work from different locations).
One of the main concepts of MOODLE environment is a course of study. A course in MOODLE is understood as a means of organising the learning process, controlling and recording students' learning activities. An e-course, unlike a course in a traditional format, is implemented in interconnected pages, the movement between which is carried out through hyperlinks [11].
It should be noted that the specifics of the professional training of philology students are taken into account in structuring the e-course «History of "History of Nineteenth-Century Foreign Literature». That is why, functionally, the e-course we are presenting in MOODLE, consists of two large blocks: an informative part and an assessment part. The informative part includes: general description of the course; course purpose and objectives; anticipated learning outcomes; course division into content modules (CM) and topics; structure of the discipline; topics and number of lectures and practical sessions; types of students' independent work; indication of the thematic content of individual assignments; assessment tools and methods of learning outcomes demonstration; forms of control; criteria and procedure for learning outcomes assessment; distribution of points; grading scale: national and ECTS; tools, equipment and software the use of which is envisaged by the discipline; list of recommended literature (both basic and supplementary); works of literature (on-line fiction texts) recommended to students for compulsory and supplementary reading; Internet information resources that can be used in the course of studying the subject.
In addition, the informative part includes plans for practical sessions -seminars. The topics of the practical sessions are organised in such a way as to cover a number of issues that are important for understanding the essence of the literary process of the 19 th century, the presentation of which for independent study is inappropriate.
Practical block also focuses on the development and formation of abilities and skills of literarycritical analysis of the works of fiction, taking into account the genre specificity, the features of composition, the methods of creating characters, identifying their own assessment from the perspective of universal moral and ethical values. A facilitative approach to the organization of learning and cognitive activities is also important to us. Consequently, we emphasise the development of students' creative abilities, opportunities for self-realisation, the stimulation of critical thinking, and the creation of the atmosphere of personal professional growth of philology students. Students learn to express their own reasoning on the topic under discussion, interpret the messages, provisions, argue their own opinions, suggest topics for further discussion. Thus, practical training becomes a dialogue between a lecturer and a student, which, in our opinion, is an efficient form of students' selfrealisation and development of their creative potential.

Fig. 1. General view of the e-course.
Let us dwell on the components of the informative part in more detail. In addition to the lectures delivered by a lecturer, e-course «History of Nineteenth-Century Foreign Literature» contains links to the lectures posted on Mystetskyi Arsenal platform. Watching literary critics' video lectures greatly contributes to the learning of complicated historical and literary material. It activates intellectual potential of the students, develops the ability to take an atypical approach to the analysis of literary and artistic phenomena.
It is very important, that students have an opportunity to choose (vote online) the topic of the practical session. Voting is preceded by a lecture-literary battle. Such 'battles' appeared as a result of scholars' polemics or so-called «Cannon Wars» -the debate about literary canon and canonical writers. The idea of the Western literary canon belongs to a professor of Yale University, who lists the authors and works which form the basis of the canon. The main criterion for Bloom lies in the artistic qualities of writers' works. Harold Bloom's Western literary canon is challenging our literary stereotypes. According to Bloom, for instance, William Wordsworth, but not, generally recognized, George Byron is considered to be the foremost representative of English Romanticism. Students can discuss such an issue on the Internet in a literature forum. The methodology for a lecture-literary battle is as follows: two students are asked to prepare a short (20-25 min) presentation-literary portrait of one of the authors studied during the course. As a rule, students choose two representatives of English Romanticism, French Realism etc. In class, a student gives a presentation to his groupmates and answers the questions. His/her opponent then presents another author, polemicising with the previous speaker and arguing that «his/her writer» is worth placing in the literary canon. The second speaker is also put questions. The questions are followed by a discussion, during which students argue about what they have heard and say which of the authors they would include into the literary canon. At the end of the lecture, the students have an opportunity to reflect once again on the information they have received and then vote on-line on the topic of practical session, dedicated to the work of that writer.
The main task of the assessment part of the course is to evaluate the student's knowledge, skills and abilities as objectively, transparently and impartially as possible. Considering the specifics of the discipline, we offer students the following forms of work on MOODLE platform, which students perform on-line: -thematic assessment (carried out after Content Module 1 (CM1) and Content Module 2 (CM2) completion); completing the on-line dictionary of literary terms; performing an individual research assignment in the form of a creative work; summary test in the form of an essay (taken after the end of the whole course). As our experience shows, during the study of the course «History of Nineteenth-Century Foreign Literature» students have questions to the lecturer, both of content and organizational nature. That is why the following feedback tools Chat, Forum, and On-line lecturer-student consultation are offered. In addition, in Chat or Forum, students discuss a seminar plan, a project or presentation format, exchange impressions about a work of fiction they have read etc. The study of the course «History of Nineteenth-Century Foreign Literature» provides the following means of assessment: oral questioning in practical sessions; standardized tests; presentation of the results of individual assignments; presentations at lectures-conferences; participation in the discussions during lectures-conferences; completing an on-line dictionary of literary terms; a final examination paper (essay). The thematic assessment takes place at the end of each Content Module (CM). The timing of the test is also agreed upon with the students in advance. A student logs in MOODLE under his/her own password and receives a test form, which includes two parts: closed (select one question) and open (enter the correct answer) tests. The time for completing the task is 20 minutes. The student receives the result after taking the test.

Fig. 2. Content Module (CM) test.
We would like to pay special attention to the On-Line Dictionary of Literary Terms. A significant number of terms are gradually introduced into a students' scientific vocabulary during lectures, but they also need to study the main body of terminology, essential for effective and productive study of fiction, themselves. Beforehand, a lecturer recommends a list of reference sources e.g., Literary Dictionary-Reference Book (1997); Lexicon of General and Comparative Literature (2001); Encyclopaedia of Literature (2007), as well as provides information on electronic dictionaryreference books. For each practical session, students should find out the meaning of the basic terms and concepts relating to the topic. They complete the Dictionary of Literary Terms individually online. The advantage is that the lecturer can check this activity at his/her convenience and assess it by putting a grade into an electronic gradebook. Learners' individual research work is characterized by the greatest methodological diversity. Students are encouraged to prepare a creative project on their owna non-standard assignment on the course of 19th century foreign literature. This can be a literary crossword, a literary puzzle, a meme, a comic strip, a mind map, a word cloud etc. Students, who wish to prepare such an assignment can create a web page for some writer, or rewrite a famous tale in a stylistic manner of a particular writer. Our experience shows that students are very eager to take up these types of work. The results of their activities are characterized by creativity and variety. Here are some interesting examples.   These creative projects are accumulated on the e-course page in Archive section. Block also includes electronic presentations, which the students prepared for the lecture-literary battle. In order to make it easier to use, the material is structured according to the year of completion. This is a kind of methodological 'bank' for a student, which he/she can use during the pedagogical practice. The final stage of the e-course is on-line essay writing. By electronic lottery, students are offered one piece of literature from the period they had studied, as well as an indicative outline. The maximum time for this task is 40 minutes. TNPU educators' experience shows that students are very enthusiastic about completing this creative task.
To summarize, the experience of using «History of Nineteenth-Century Foreign Literature» ecourse in a pandemic condition has enabled educators to: organise students' learning activities effectively; communicate with students in an efficient way; monitor the completion of different types of assignments; ensure timely distribution of learning resources. For the student audience, the electronic course under consideration has allowed to: effectively learn the training material; individualize and systematize learning activities; provide an individual schedule, allowing flexibility in learning material, its duration and sequence.
Prospects for further research we see in the interactive technology development for its use in «History of Nineteenth-Century Foreign Literature» course teaching.