ONLINE EDUCATION PLATFORMS AS EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION CHANNELS

Анотація

The article examines the emergence, formation and development of online education in the world and in Ukraine; research also reveals the origin of the largest massive open online course (MOOC) studios, the evolution of online courses and the variety of online courses at present. In addition, the article is also focused on specifics of Ukrainian MOOC studios in comparison with western MOOC studios. The pace of implementing e-learning into Ukrainian higher education institutions is also revealed, so as the corresponding legislative and motivational components of the process. In addition, the article reveals the essence of media commercialization – activities aimed at receiving profits due to the influence upon media audiences; the article also examines the expediency of ordering and placing online courses at interactive education platforms with a view of receiving advantages by businesses; advertising’s necessity of authenticity, so as the benefits of native advertising embodied in online courses are examined as well.

In order to justify the need for commercialization of modern informational media resources (in particular, online education studios), “EdEra” organization was taken as the example. This organization appeared in Ukraine as one of the first online education studios and managed to earn the recognition of several hundred thousand Ukrainian educators as of 2019. Currently “EdEra” produces online educational courses upon the order but it considers creating its own courses (meaning they belong to “EdEra” and no one else). In order to reveal the essence of media-commercialization, the article provides arguments in favor of promotional materials’ shift to the content of educational online courses, particularly EdEra’s; it also revises modern Internet advertising methods that prove to be obsolete and non-effective. In addition, the essence of authentic advertising was disclosed and proposed for the commercialization of educational online courses. Also, the article discusses the dynamics of the Internet usage in Ukraine and worldwide, and promotes changing of the advertising approach in regard to the development of Internet ad blocking technologies. Taking into account modern trends of the advertising development and growing popularity of the non-traditional (digital) education, the article suggests the expediency of commercializing educational courses for the online education studios worldwide and for “EdEra” organization in particular.