Socio-pedagogical Aspects of Organizing Distance Learning in the Era of Educational Digitalization

Abstract

The article examines the socio-pedagogical aspects of organizing distance learning in the context of global digitalization of the educational space. The aim of the study is to provide a theoretical justification for the socio-pedagogical aspects of organizing distance learning in the era of educational digitalization and to define the conceptual principles for creating an effective virtual learning environment in higher education institutions. The research design is based on the analysis of leading didactic concepts of distance learning (the theory of transactional distance and the community of inquiry model) to explore socio-pedagogical interaction under digital conditions. The methodology includes: literature analysis to substantiate distance learning concepts, synthesis to generalize socio-pedagogical aspects, modeling to characterize socio-pedagogical interaction, and generalization to formulate principles of distance education. The empirical part of the study involved a survey of 86 instructors from Ukrainian pedagogical higher education institutions and a comparative experiment between control and experimental student groups (50 participants in each). Group comparison indicates a quantitative improvement in student performance by 12–16%, an increase in motivation by 35.5%, and a rise in autonomy by 42.9% in the experimental group. The study identifies types of socio-pedagogical interaction in distance learning and principles for their implementation. The conclusions confirm the effectiveness of distance technologies in enhancing educational quality through personalization, gamification, and the development of instructors’ digital pedagogical culture.