With the increase in implanting the information and computing technologies into learning during 1990-2020s, it has become obvious that e-learning is going to become both a global tendency and a crucial change in the quality, form and methodology of education. The pandemic of COVID 19 with its massive global shift to distance learning brought to focus the need to revise the strategies and policies in education in general and the critical importance for appropriate digital training for university teachers in particular to boost their readiness, preparedness and ability to adapt to the changing conditions of the educational environment. The study shows that the teacher’s skills to create high-quality basic content for distance learning are crucial for successful teaching online. The plethora of conditions, criteria and factors affecting the quality of educational content for effective online teaching is examined. The article details the stages and principles of designing the basic content of an e-learning course. Using text editors and information visualization tools as examples the authors propose practical recommendations for content development. The study brings to focus some key concepts of e-learning methodology. The authors imply that to create quality content, a teacher needs knowledge and skills in pedagogical design, computing, time management and online communication. The proposed principles for the basic educational content development and criteria suggested have and educators involved in e-courses development, as well as to a wide range of users.

The article deals with the problems of organizing the work of river transport on small rivers of the Tyumen region in 19601964. One of the most important sources of information was the reporting documents on the work of transport. The first steps aimed at improving the transport supply on small rivers at the beginning of the oil and gas development of Western Siberia are analyzed. It characterizes the composition of cargo, the redistribution of the fleet in the process of work, interdepartmental disputes and ways to resolve them, provides statistics on traffic volumes, as well as other specific aspects of work on small rivers. Among the constantly arising problems is the lack of staff and turnover, which had to be solved when planning navigation. Attention is drawn to the fact that, despite the low level of mechanization of the river economy, there was a well-functioning connection between the river departments and design bureaus of the Ministry of the river fleet. It is noted that the initial period of the development of river highways took place through a qualitative and quantitative increase in labor productivity. The importance of intensive preparation of river routes in 19601964 is noted. It is indicated that during the period under review, a qualitative step forward was made, which subsequently made it possible to gain a rapid pace of development of Western Siberia.