The theme and the priorities of the IJREL reflect the conceptual principles underlying the modernization of education and the reform of the educational systems in European countries, as well as national development strategies for the 21st century. One of the European Union’s key educational objectives is the provision of equal opportunities for all with regard to access to learning and knowledge, regardless of gender, financial and physical ability, and place of
residence. That is why distance learning has now been granted a status of high priority. If introduced on a wide scale, distance learning and teaching may make significant contribution towards the achievement of educational goals in member states.
The present volume includes nine articles gathered in five chapters.

Being a teacher in the 21st century is a great challenge and requires great thought. A big evolution has happened over the last 70 years. From a room computer (the Mark I in 1943) to tiny pocket computers, thousands of times smaller and thousands of times bigger in performance and capacity. E-learning 3.0 is based on synchronous interactivity and it was only possible after 2004 due to a considerable increase of Internet bandwidth available, evolution in video compression, stream video, and sophistication of virtual classroom platforms. This was another revolution. As a result, e-learning has evolved to a new form: b-learning – where students will never be alone and interactivity becomes very important. B-learning has a different format now: from now on it is asynchronous (content on demand and activities to be implemented in an interactive format with remote collaborative work) and synchronous in presence or virtual environment. Teachers need to evolve from teacher to (blended) b-teacher or b-tutor, offering a mixed teaching expertise.

Creation of an open e-environment is one of the main tasks of universities as its use for educational purposes enhances the quality of education of the modern university. A checking tool of the quality and transparency of e-environment in the world is the use of rating systems. The article describes the main global educational ratings and the impact of their indicators on the university work, the development of internal ratings of university structural divisions based on indicators of the Webometrics rating. An analysis was made of the publication activity of scientific and pedagogical staff using the Ukrainian information-analytical system “Bibliometric of Ukrainian Science” and a comparative study was performed to analyse the qualitative provision of masters by the teaching staff based on the newly-established and implemented in the BGKU rating system “E-portfolios.”Keywords: open e-environment, rating, quality of the educational process, publication activity, e-portfolio

This paper analyzes some results of a survey for university professors and university management, held by the international research team within the European IRNet Project: International Research Network for study and development of new tools and methods for advanced pedagogical science in the field of ICT instruments, e-learning, and intercultural competences. The survey researched motivation and aims of professors from the Dniprodzerzhinsk State Technical University – official partner of the project. The article reveals professors’ beliefs and preferences about ICT-aided learning as well as it analyzes advantages, problems, and motives of the introduction of ICT in higher education teaching.

Keyword s: e-learning, higher education, IRNet project, survey, academic staff

The paper focuses on the role of Virtual Learning Environments in the scope of different types of assessment in foreign language learning and teaching promoting learner autonomy and developing such key competences as learning to learn. Effective language education calls for a more learner-oriented approach to assessment and Learning Management Systems such as Moodle seem to respond to such needs in the computer assisted teaching/learning process.

The article describes some preliminary results of the implementation of Work- Package 4 (WP4) “Selection and testing new IT tools” in the framework of the international research network (IRNet) and researchers from partner institutions from Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine, and Australia. These results concern analysis and study of some categories of IT tools for making multimedia presentation. All the package period has been divided into 5 main stages. The role of multimedia in teaching is considerable as it offers various formats of presenting information simultaneously. The combination of text, audio, images, animation, video, as well as hyperlinks has an advantage of using both of the two main channels – visual and verbal – for presentation in an efficient way. This paper also discusses the features of effective presentation and examples of computer programs which may be used for this purpose. Authors presented a ranking list based on quality and quantity assessment of chosen IT tools and they proposed some characteristics of good presentation as well as they analyzed frequent mistakes made by users elaborating presentations.

This article, prepared by an international team of researchers from different scientific areas, connected with ICT, e-learning, pedagogy, and other related disciplines, focuses on the objectives and some results of the international project IRNet. In particular, the article describes research tools, methods, and a procedure of the WP2, that is, analyses of legal, ethical, human, technical, and social factors of ICT and e-learning development, and the state of intercultural competences in partner countries: objectives, tasks, deliverables, and implementation of research trips. Researchers from Poland, the Netherlands, Spain, Slovakia, Portugal, Czech Republic, Australia, Ukraine, and Russia analyzed the results of WP2 in the context of the next stages and Work packages of IRNet project – International Research Network.

In the 2023 vision strategy, prepared by TUBITAK in Turkey, Information Technology (IT), areas have been designated for target countries and FATIH project started in 2010. In order to achieve the aimed goals, FATIH (Increasing Opportunities and Improving Technology Movement) project consists of five main components. These components establish hardware and software infrastructure, educational e-content preparation and management, effective use of IT in the cur- riculum, in-service training of teachers, conscious, reliable, manageable and quan- tifiable IT use. The first component identifies technical infrastructures of school. The second component was created for the provision of educational content which is Education Information Network (EIN). The third component considers training programs. The fourth and fifth components of the effective use of IT by teachers discuss the issue of conscious and reliable Internet use and plan information for the in-service training. This paper presents the first component of the FATIH project and discusses the current situation and future goals of the ongoing project.

Being a teacher in the 21st century is a great challenge and requires great thought. A big evolution has happened over the last 70 years. From a room computer (the Mark I in 1943) to tiny pocket computers, thousands of times smaller and thousands of times bigger in performance and capacity. E-learning 3.0 is based on synchronous interactivity and it was only possible after 2004 due to a considerable increase of Internet bandwidth available, evolution in video compression, stream video, and sophistication of virtual classroom platforms. This was another revolution. As a result, e-learning has evolved to a new form: b-learning – where students will never be alone and interactivity becomes very important. B-learning has a different format now: from now on it is asynchronous (content on demand and activities to be implemented in an interactive format with remote collaborative work) and synchronous in presence or virtual environment. Teachers need to evolve from teacher to (blended) b-teacher or b-tutor, offering a mixed teaching expertise.