With the development of information society it is becoming particularly needed to construct high-quality system of higher education, aimed at shaping the skills of life-long learning. This is determined by the existing contradictions between continuously increasing volume of information required for people to maintain their competitiveness on the labour market and limited opportunities of traditional educational system to gain knowledge, abilities, skills and other competencies. To resolve this contradiction, educational programs should, above all, be consistent with the principles of multilevel, complementarity, handleability, continuity, integration and flexibility. In our view, significant prospects in relation to these principles and improvement of modern higher educational system are presented by the introduction and development of university e-learning environment. The paper presents barriers to the introduction of e-learning environment in Ukrainian universities, as well as discusses professors’ opinions, received via a sociological survey.

The article examines the peculiarities of digitalization of the educational process of higher education institutions of Ukraine and reveals the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was found that modern world challenges have become a turning point for rapid innovations in the field of education. In particular, the COVID-19 pandemic created a unique opportunity for the unprepared introduction of digital technologies into the educational process, and with the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the digital format of education became almost the only opportunity to obtain higher education. It is noted that in the conditions of digitization of the educational process, distance education has become more and more widespread, the specialty of which is the provision of educational services through the use of modern information and communication technologies in education. The authors emphasize the advantages of distance learning in higher education institutions of Ukraine, the main ones being: temporal, geographical, psychological, ergonomic ones and others. It is highlighted that the problematic aspects in the process of organizing distance learning are related to: the need for high internal motivation of the student; the problem of quality control of education and academic dishonesty; technical flaws; the problem of student identification; lack of live dialogue with the teacher; lack of digital competences, etc. Based on the analysis of secondary data, the dynamics of processes related to the use of digital distance learning technologies in the conditions of nationwide quarantine are outlined; also analysed are the factors that negatively affect the quality of implementation of digital learning technologies in higher education institutions. It was emphasized that owing to digitalization, the educational process becomes more personalized, mobile, accessible and flexible.

The present state of information and communication technologies in teaching sociological disciplines defined promising directions of improving interaction between teacher and student through wider implementation of ICTs in the educational process. The authors elaborate on advantages and disadvantages of using ICT in teaching sociological disciplines. The paper discusses results of a sociological survey, held in Dniprovsk State Technical University with the aim to analyze the scope of ICT use in teaching. ICTs are efficiently applied in various classrooms with different content, in case professors evaluate the quality of mastering learning materials and students' independent work. Modern lecturers of sociology widely use individual digital materials to support classes (presentations, display materials) and students' independent work (digital textbooks, assignments, tests); recommend as basic and additional sources of information various e-manuals and related sites; some digital media training applications from available collections, university repository, electronic curricula and resources from research databases. The use of the aforementioned ICTs in teaching sociology enhances cognitive activity of students, develops research skills, creative potential, promotes more efficient formation of general and specific competencies. The use of ICTs in the teaching social sciences is the evidence of competences of modern teachers.

Досліджено сучасний стану впровадження інформаційно-комунікаційних технологій в систему державного управління вищою освітою в Україні. Наголошено, що інформатизація державного управління сферою вищої освіти є однією зі складових частин побудови повноцінних е-демократії та е-урядування в нашій країні. На основі порівняння положень нормативно-правових актів і реальної ситуації з’ясовано стан функціонування  електронна система щодо збору та аналізу фінансових даних  за результатами діяльності у сфері вищої освіти і єдиної державної електронної бази з питань освіти. Визначено їх роль у державному управлінні галуззю, функції та переваги. Висвітлено повноваження окремих управлінських структур у внесенні даних до електронних систем управління вищою освітою.

Current stage of ICT development necessitates the improvement of teaching tools, skills, and learning outcomes. The article discusses bright educational prospects of travel blogging for students of English as a second language (ESL). The authors suggest a short theoretical overview of research into travel blogosphere’s educational opportunities, while discussing a classification of travel blogs according to the type of sender vs receiver communication. On a wide and modern textual material the article considers such prominent features of travel storytelling as polysemantic vocabulary, compact meaning representation, strategies to present cultural information and verbal creativity which can be of true interest for students of B2 level and above. The readers can also learn about a few forms of activity with travel stories which are individual special sampling with some specific focus (pun, irony, creative instances of word building), presentation of foreign culture by means of English, project work for a small group of enthusiasts, sampling stories by country, by area or by activity, and presenting one concise story to the classroom, as their own post or a paper brochure.