INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF DISTANCE LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES IN A LAW SCHOOL

The paper reveals the methodology of conducting a sociological study of the distance learning institutionalization in a law school, describes the main conclusions of an applied study on the effectiveness of implementing digital distance learning technologies in the educational process, traces the relationship between various educational strategies and the success of using digital technologies in new learning environments. The study reveals the factors of successful adaptation of technologies to the needs of students and teachers, analyzes the barriers to institutionalization, and provides recommendations for effective expansion of the use of distance learning technologies. The accuracy of the results of the sociological research is justified by a large sample of the survey, which included more than 1200 respondents, and the typology of respondents into three clusters: teachers, students, and support staff. In each cluster, a typology was carried out, which made it possible to identify different practices of using digital technologies during distance learning. The empirical material was collected in August 2020, which determines the relevance of the conclusions.


Introduction
The activity of the subject of social relations in modern society is subordinate to the logic of digital algorithms for organizing social contacts and achieving joint goals.The use of artificial intelligence systems to process heterogeneous information from actors with different competencies of social participation facilitates the achievement of synthesis of healing models developed taking into account regulatory markers and success criteria from different social fields.The multidimensional nature of social relations is increasing, in which social actors successfully unite, exchange mutually understandable information, reconstruct space, and find common parameters of goals and means of achieving them.At the same time, one subject participates in many social constructs of this kind.Each such participation has a special legal status and specific expectations of the actors.The logic of relations itself is hidden behind the digital algorithm for organizing relations.As a result, the subject makes many entries into the social constructs of the digital organization of relations, receives or does not receive the desired result.No member of such a relationship can reconstruct the integrity of the entire system of social ties.There is a fragmentation of the reflection of society with the hidden logic of organization.The institutional integrity of the functioning of society is disintegrating, which leads to the disunity of the individual's life projects.
"The most important prerequisites for successful institutionalization are: firstly, the emergence of certain societies, the needs for new types of social activities and the corresponding socio-economic and political conditions; secondly, the development of the necessary organizational structures and related social norms and values, the formation on their basis of a system of personal needs, value orientations and expectations." 2 In the educational sphere, when the institutionalization of new teaching methods fails, negative consequences of the loss of a single logic of the organization and functioning of the social system by the subjects of social relations are most acute: the loss of criteria for the success of teaching, a decrease in interest in online communications, a decrease in the culture of communication and mutual respect in discourse, and the inability to correlate the strategy of preparation for classes with practical mechanisms for the formation of competencies.
Digitalization is a new property of social processes, its introduction into the educational process is just beginning.At the same time, "today in the Russian higher school, distance learning technologies in the education system are considered rather as a process of further promising development." 3Therefore, it is natural to change the logic of field design and training practices.However, enough time has already passed to identify in society the most adaptive subjects (teachers and students) new forms of reconstruction of the integrity of the communication space at the university through the definition of new universal markers of success in the digital environment and the exploitation of the logic of forming a learning strategy with the adaptation of digital means to the individual vision of the meaning of education.In recent months, the need for digital technologies, a holistic system of digital communications, which would be perceived most naturally, close to the "pre-digital" everyday life, has soared worldwide.There is a need to rethink technologies and their applications as a new tool for integrating the everyday and institutional environment of society in a multidimensional, personalized space.This approach will indicate a way of humanely adapting digital technologies to the needs of a person -a subject of social relations.To understand the nature of the reconstruction of the interaction system in digital space, it is important to find out the relationship between trends in unification and personalization in distance learning.
In this regard, it becomes relevant to investigate new strategies of the most adaptive and constructive students and teachers, to expose the logic of digitalization to the educational organization of a multidimensional social space, to restore the integrity of the process of genesis and reproduction of educational cognitive and communicative practices in the visualized world.When the issue of the genesis of any social practices arises, the interface between the institutional system level and the individual design of social participation becomes important.The theoretical model of digitalization can differ significantly from the practice of its implementation.Although a number of education theorists believe that the process of introducing distance education "is based on the use of advanced information technologies, the application of which provides quick adaptation to modern realities," 4 reflexion of new technologies by educational actors can both contribute to and create barriers to the institutionalization of innovations.
In the educational environment of the university, the duality of the systemic and subjective manifests itself in projecting the competencies of individual disciplines and, in general, specializing in the professional self-understanding of students.Modern world trends in education include "a focus in education on affirming personal principles in a person… in subordination to the training of specialists to the goals of man and society…" 5 The problem of maintaining the integrity of professional formation and overcoming the fragmentation of education is most acute here.If during traditional training many heterogeneous communications at a university are staples of "human work", they help to create a holistic image of the profession, to perceive a unified strategy for training a specialist, then in a remote environment information is supplied "injectedly", accurately, in relation to a specific task or competence.Modern researchers note that "a global rethinking of the role and function of universities as potential industries of the "person responsible" and "person aware" is seen as necessary. 6herefore, professional formation requires the development of new channels and means of communication, new parameters of the discourse of students and teachers, in which multidimensional, complex and unified teaching practices aimed at creating a specific image of a professional would be restored.Then the steady intersection of the field of education and the field of profession will be restored, at the junction of which the competencies of future specialists are formed.
Thus, the scientific novelty of the study is the synthesis of the subject and systemic parameters of the reconstruction of the educational space in the process of total digitalization, which allows us to find models, methods, optimal conditions for restoring the institutional and communicative integrity of interactions at the university.Philosophical understanding of this problem will make it possible to expose the logic of digitalization of the formation of relations as a phenomenon of the social organization of modern societies.Sociological research is aimed at typologizing the strategies of the actors of institutional relations in various areas where distance learning has been introduced, the discovery of common parameters of social design that form the basis of social consensus in the new conditions of digital integration and the formation of tools for assessing the productivity and success of education.
In order to understand the mechanism of building new strategies and methods of interaction between the teacher and the student in the context of distance learning, we conducted a sociological study of students and employees in a law university (Kutafin Moscow State Law University) on the basis of the Moscow State University Sociological Center.The study focuses on reflecting the personal experience of interviewees, their use of distance learning opportunities and other professional tasks during the pandemic.The research object has a complex structure, designed based on the deployment of professional, managerial and educational tasks.As a result, the study covered three clusters: students, faculty and administrative staff.The subject of the study was the attitude of the University's employees and students to the introduction of distance learning technologies and on-line environment in general to fulfill educational and other professional tasks in 2020.
The main goal of the study was to exploit the strategy of involving students and teachers in distance learning through their reflection of their experience in professional identification and involvement in the institutionalization of digital educational technologies.It would be a mistake to consider distance learning as an unexpectedly falling problem from the sky, which needs to be solved in a completely new way.Digital technology and remote communication have been used in education for more than a decade.Only the scale of the use of technologies has changed, the range of tasks has expanded, which has caused a new round of institutionalization of distance learning.Therefore, the study of the mechanisms for the introduction and adoption of these technologies should take into account the overlapping of past experience with the new institutional framework.How well the existing experience enters the new institutional and technological environment will depend on the preservation of the integrity of the educational process.Contradictions of experience, expectations, ideas about professional growth, on the contrary, will cause fragmentation in the education of future professionals.
Sociology methods are convenient to use to achieve this goal.Using sociological procedures, it is possible to cluster students and teachers in order to understand the mechanism of genesis of new practices.The mass survey method made it possible to correlate real educational practices, expectations from new forms of education and assessment of the quality of implementation of distance education mechanisms.Thus, we will get a multidimensional picture of the reflection of the experience of integrating educational subjects into a new institutional environment.
Problems of the social research: 1) discovery of new quality parameters for lectures and hands-on exercises in a distance learning environment, 2) research on the formation of competencies in the use of online interaction technologies in accordance with individual digital means and technologies, 3) research of new properties of communication space in the process of remote education, 4) correlation of the structure of the virtual educational environment and institutional relations in the university, 5) identifying opportunities for further institutionalization of distance learning.
For the survey, selective selection of respondents by the method of accessibility of respondents was used.A total of 55 teachers, 34 administrative staff and 1,128 students were interviewed.The survey was conducted using the questionnaire method in July-August 2020.The collection of sociological data was carried out by the survey method in the form of an online questionnaire.The questionnaire contains both closed and open questions.

Changing everyday life during distance learning
Let us turn to the description of the results of the study within the specified tasks.
When estimating the costs of forces and time for distance learning, a significant discrepancy is noticeable.Students note that they spend from 3 to 6 hours a day on distance learning.24 % learn more than 6 hours (see fig. 1 and fig.2).Objectively, these time costs are less than in a full-time mode.However, subjectively, most students feel that they spend more time remotely than usual.This discrepancy indicates greater intensity and concentration in the distance learning process.Next, we have to find out the reason for the increase in the complexity of training: a temporary difficulty in adapting to new technology or a constant increase in energy for the use of digital technologies.The results of the study show that the second cause is more likely.However, before proving this, we will reveal other properties of institutionalization.

Transforming classroom forms and methods
Choosing the forms of lectures, the preferences of students and teachers diverge.Students consider video lectures to be, which can be viewed at any time, the most convenient form of lectures, (see fig. 3).The most effective form of lectures for teachers are webinars.They consider online communication for lectures as optimal.Video lectures and text material, when it is not possible to interact directly with students, are evaluated as a low-productivity medium of study.In answers to an open question about the form of lectures, most respondents wrote about the desire to return to the form of lectures and practical lessons in the classroom.

Fig. 3. Preferred forms of carrying out lectures
The situation is similar with practical exercises.The webinar remains the preferred form.Its only alternative can be group project work, when students work in a group on a task, but have an opportunity to receive advice from the teacher (see fig. 4).
The main advantages of holding webinars, according to the teachers, are the convenient use of presentations, which can be shown in parallel with the reading of a lecture or discussing problems in a practical lesson.It is also convenient for teachers to conduct classes from home and accurately determine the number of students participating in the webinar (see fig. 5).Processing answers to an open question showed that only on the webinar teachers do see an analogy with live communication in the classroom, which for many is a significant efficiency factor.
For teachers, the main disadvantages of webinars are the inability to see all the students at once and to understand their degree of participation in the lesson (see fig. 6).In the free response column, many teachers were unhappy with the 40 minutes limitation of the webinar in the Zoom service and the high emotional impact of working online.It turns out that all the respondents seek to reproduce or slightly modernize the previous experience of conducting classes.If it is important for a student to obtain certain information that allows assessing the cognitive framework of the discipline, the criteria for assessing its successful development, then it is important for the teacher to feel feedback, to reproduce two-way interaction with students.Apparently, through these forms it is possible to use the previous experience.There is a new duality in communication.In the new environment, students want to find new opportunities to independently choose the material for learning and simplify its perception.This will lead to increased competition between teachers for the attention of students.Teachers, on the contrary, are interested in reproducing disciplinary integrity, which allows actively influencing student attitudes.Such a contradiction should be resolved in order to further institutionalize distance education.
In the process of conducting practical classes, both students and teachers are interested in constant feedback in order to continuously monitor the communication process, the expectations of the other side and their ability to influence it.Therefore, for practical training, it is more convenient for everyone interviewed to connect to webinars.

Adapting digital technologies to distance learning
As a means of distance learning, students consider webinars in Zoom or e-mail tasks to be the most effective (see fig. 7).Largely, such estimates relate to the availability and usability of these tools.Teachers also consider webinars at Zoom to be the most convenient means of communication.Both students and teachers do not seek to find means of convenient interaction on their own and use the most affordable options.The Zoom program is quite easy to master and is successfully integrated into the distance learning environment of the university.However, many note its limited functionality, malfunctions.At the same time, there were no attempts to find a more successful solution for conducting practical exercises.Students were divided into two groups during the development of new learning facilities (see table 1).The first was aimed at maximizing the diversity of digital technologies and increasing autonomy in the new conditions.There is both a high level of adaptation and innovation.This group includes 32 % of students.The second group (26 % of respondents) has a low level of innovation and an average rate of adaptation in the new conditions.It is important for them to use sustainable social practices to achieve goals.In a digital environment, they are looking for analogues with traditional ones.The remaining 46 % of students have not yet developed a clear position on how best to act in the new conditions.
Teachers were also divided into two groups by the nature of the use of digital media (see table 2).The first group (29 % of respondents) was dominated by the desire to use proven, more familiar and simultaneously institutionalized funds, regardless of their effectiveness.Adaptation over innovation prevails here.The second group (26 % of teachers) has more innovation and a desire to adapt technologies to themselves.A significant deterrent to the institutionalization of distance learning is the shortage of digital equipment and the quality of communications.This factor is relevant for all categories of respondents, but the overall technical availability of distance learning tools for students is significantly lower than for teachers.The most accessible are webinars in Zoom and e-mail tasks (see fig. 8).Most students had unsolvable problems with receiving tasks in their personal account and in the process of connecting to webinars through the Big Blue Button service.Most of the problems were caused by the inability to connect to the IPAA distance learning system, as well as by malfunctioning software packages (see fig. 9).

. Availability of distance learning tools for teachers (accessibility index
for students from 1 to 100, where 1 is unavailable, 100 is fully available)

Development of new means of education during distance education
Let's take a look at how participants in the distance learning process treat certain types of classes remotely.Reflexion of class quality is still based on traditional criteria.Interviewees try to find analogues with the usual form of training, and do not proceed from the opportunity to take advantage of digitalization.For example, webinars conducted by students are evaluated as a fairly effective means of learning, since they are most similar to live communication in an audience (see fig. 10).Students are attracted by the opportunity to communicate with the teacher and one-group members, and interest in material is growing.Nevertheless, this form remains unusual, students are wary of it.When answering an open question, a number of students note the convenience of webinars, since there is an opportunity to study at home, in the usual environment.Many students talk about program failures, low sound quality and video.
Other means of distance learning for students are even less familiar, they evaluate them with restraint (see fig. 11).The high spread of answers in the absence of a normal distribution indicates the inability  of students to give a clear description of these funds.In the comments, students noted the high dependence of the quality of the use of distance learning tools not on the type of technology, but on the teacher himself.
If the teacher successfully uses the technology, then the effectiveness of the classes is significantly improved.

Barriers to institutionalization of distance learning
In studying the manifestation of subjectivity in the new conditions, it is important for us to find out whether the problems of using remote technologies relate to the inherent properties of a new means of education or are perceived as temporary difficulties of the transition period.To do this, we asked respondents about the possibilities of modernizing distance learning, their vision of solving existing problems.Answers to these questions showed distrust of the new technologies themselves.Digitalization is perceived as an unnecessary alternative to traditional forms of interaction and knowledge transfer.The main mechanism for restoring the effectiveness of training, according to respondents, can be a return to live interpersonal communication.This position is held by both students and teachers.However, there is a difference in understanding the optimal development of the situation.
For the modernization of distance learning, according to students, the most significant is the creation of sites where the main materials in the discipline will be collected, and the placement of a video lecture course (see fig. 12).In the answer to the open question, most students write wishes to move from distance learning to classroom work.The use of additional materials on the Internet is familiar to students, does not replace interaction with the teacher.However, they consider these tools to be the most convenient for learning in the new conditions.Teachers in this matter prefer online communication, while students prefer virtual databases.
At the social interaction level, adaptation was much faster than at the institutional level.It is quite difficult for students and teachers to determine the criteria for the effectiveness of their activities and the parameters for controlling the quality of the process in the new conditions.At the same time, it became a little more difficult for students to interact with the teacher during distance learning.43 % of respondents did not note the difference, for 21 % the interaction was facilitated, and for 36 % it was complicated (see fig. 13).Students were able to quickly find the advantages of digital communications and restructure the tactics of interaction with the teacher.There are more situations in which it is necessary to ask the teacher a question.It became possible to individualize tasks, the process of their evaluation and discussion of results.
When modeling the monitoring situation, the positions of teachers and students change.During the certification, students are interested in limiting the interaction using digital means.Here, their installation is aimed at changes that exclude analogies with the traditional form of training.Teachers, on the contrary, seek to replicate traditional control procedures in distance learning.Therefore, when asked about the preferred forms of passing exams and credits, students answered that it was more convenient for them to perform written tasks.On this issue,  their position diverges from the preferences of teachers, for whom it is more convenient to take tests and exams through online communication, for example, through Zoom (see fig. 14).Such positions in the context of institutionalization of distance learning require the formation of new methods for monitoring achievement.A departure from traditional methods should be compensated by new forms of digital interactions that combine virtual tasks, their corresponding material and online interactions both in the form of consultations for the preparation stage and in the form of an oral response from students of the prepared task.
Only the balance of oral and written means of control, accompanied by interactive methodological material, will create in the subjects of the educational process an installation for the development of distance learning.
There is another deterrent in interpersonal interactions.The limited use of the potential of digital technologies is due to the fact that not all the capabilities of distance learning technologies have yet been mastered by most teachers.Students note that teachers use distance learning tools quite actively and widely.But this provision does not apply to all teachers.Most respondents identified 6-8 disciplines in which various mechanisms of interactivity are involved.That's less than half.
Students were asked an open question about disciplines in which distance learning technologies are most diverse and interesting.The respondents themselves entered the answer, so the collected data is quite objective.The disciplines most frequently indicated by students and the percentage of references among all the respondents are shown in table 3. Other disciplines use a small set of interfaces (see fig. 15).As a result, interest in learning is lost, since the main factor of adaptation in the new conditions is not the final result, evaluation, successful completion of certification, but the teaching process itself, restoration of confidence in quality interaction, reliance on the personality of the teacher, his confidence in the effectiveness of the process.The teacher's inability to use technology, students' complaints about their imperfections and teaching difficulties dissipate students' motivations to overcome their problems when using technology.
Teachers poorly understand this problem.In their opinion, they use a variety of distance learning tools (see fig. 16).As the study showed, despite the fact that almost everyone has the opportunity to send an assignment by e-mail and conduct seminars at Zoom, this ends the use of technology.The usage of chat rooms, other means of online communication, such as Skype, Viber, etc., MS Team online training services are extremely rare.When using distance learning systems, one third of teachers had problems with loading tasks completed by students, 22 % experienced difficulties explaining tasks for practical classes to students (see fig. 17).
Teachers also noted the inconvenience of using systems when working with mobile devices, poor interface design and technical failures of the system.
The situation is complicated by the fact that teachers themselves are not trying to overcome difficulties when working with software packages and digital tools.This factor was noted by about a half of the respondents.Therefore, at the first stage of the institutionalization of distance education, it is necessary to establish high-quality permanent interpersonal interactions between the teacher and the student, expand the opportunities of teachers to confidently and versatile use of various digital technologies in order to interest the student, give him an impetus to confidently and subjectively engage in the design of online interaction situations.Then the introduction of new institutional standards, criteria for the quality of education in the digital environment will become understandable and will be perceived as a logical measure to modernize education.

Adjustment of the organizational environment of the university to the new conditions of the educational process
The completion of the institutionalization of innovations depends not only on the regulatory environment and related infrastructure, but largely on the construction of strategies for achieving significant life goals in the new conditions.In our case, the introduction of distance education depends on the formation of sustainable strategies for obtaining education, the formation of a holistic image of a legal professional for a student and strategies for professional development, self-realization for a teacher.
Our study showed that there are opportunities to build sustainable educational strategies in students, but significant barriers to selfrealization in teachers.Cluster analysis data allowed students to be divided into two groups (see fig. 18).In the first, interest in study has been preserved or intensified, new prospects for self-development have appeared.There was more time to prepare for classes, new opportunities for communication with the teacher appeared.In the second group there is growing uncertainty in the future, difficulties in building a training strategy.It became more difficult for such students to understand the material of lectures and practical classes, communication barriers arose when communicating with a teacher.The variance analysis showed that, nevertheless, the factors of the first cluster that positively affect the personal growth of students prevail slightly during the period of distance learning.In order to comprehensively understand all the dimensions of the institutionalization of distance learning, it was important for us to establish the adaptation of support systems and administrative staff to new remote forms of work.In organizational terms, the interaction of the teacher and the student quickly created a technical support system.Teachers do not experience difficulties in establishing interaction with students.If teachers had problems working in the distance learning system of the university, then in 84 % of cases they received all the necessary assistance from the technical support service.
Most of the administrative staff interviewed were able to perform almost all professional tasks remotely using digital technologies.Only 21 % of those queried were unable to operate remotely (see fig. 19).
In the course of working remotely, university staff felt the need to access documents in hard copy and to see documents, but in most cases they could not do so (see fig. 20).These are the main difficulties of remote operation.At the same time, it became easier for employees to analyze large amounts of information remotely, contact teachers and students through corporate mail, exchange the necessary and up-todate information among themselves, and quickly receive answers to requests (see fig. 21).In general, employees see more advantages than the disadvantages of working remotely.
When working remotely, employees have most of the technical conditions and capabilities to use digital technologies.It is most difficult to obtain quality software (see fig. 22).Here they need support.
Assessing their ability to work remotely and the period during which the quality of the tasks will not be affected, employees were divided into two groups.The first is dominated by the opinion that it is necessary to stop working remotely as soon as possible.For them, it is possible to perform professional tasks in isolation from the workplace for no more than 2 months.This group consists of 47 % of employees (see fig. 23).The second group is ready to work remotely permanently.It does not need to return to its workplace.The volume of the group is 44 % of employees.However, if you still have to constantly work at home, then most respondents hope to adapt to the new conditions.61 % believe that their life will get better from this. 15 % view this idea extremely negatively (see fig. 24).Working remotely, most university staff began to spend more time performing their duties.About half spend the same amount of time.Almost no one has been able to reduce their time (see fig. 25).

Conclusions
Assessing the possibilities of distance learning, teachers see its advantages in saving time, the convenience of working at home, the emergence of new methodological opportunities to provide students with materials for preparing for classes.The shortcomings of distance learning are reduced to the impossibility of direct contact with students, the lack of a direct reaction to the words of the teacher.Lack of live communication makes it difficult to attract the attention of students, reduces the quality of assimilation of material.Many teachers note the difficulty of placing tasks through the university's distance learning software.
Students, on the contrary, prefer to work with finished materials rather than through online interaction.Their preferences tend to video lectures and interactive materials posted on specialized sites in disciplines.
Speaking about the benefits of distance learning, students note the lack of time on the road, the ability to better allocate time to study, health comfortable taking credit in the form of online communication than giving various tasks for written execution.Many teachers expressed a desire to take credits and exams exclusively in direct live communication with the student.

Fig. 7 .
Fig. 7. Assessment of the quality of distance learning educational technologies for teachers (variation from 1 to 100,where 1 is the minimum score, 100 is the maximum)

Fig. 8
Fig. 8. Availability of distance learning tools for teachers (accessibility indexfor students from 1 to 100, where 1 is unavailable, 100 is fully available)

Fig. 18 .
Fig. 18. Results of cluster analysis of studentsThe distance between the factors of achieving learning objectives

Fig. 20 .
Fig. 20.Difficulties with performing professional tasks remotely (administrative and support staff)

Fig. 19 .Fig. 22 .Fig. 23 .
Fig. 19.Ability to perform professional tasks remotely (administrative and support staff) less time with the same amount of loading Work takes longer I spend as much time at work as I do in the workplace