Over the past 10 years, a lot of universities worldwide have designed different online courses available to their students. The emergence of online courses makes Higher Education a more flexible and elastic concept. The present paper documents a qualitative study that examines motivating and demotivating factors in using Moodle for English language learning in higher schools. The survey encompasses data collected from 137 students and 20 teachers in a higher technical school (Russia) with a focus on students’ and teachers’ perception of Moodle-based learning. Analysis of the obtained data reveals a set of factors concerning pedagogical, technical, management approaches towards Moodle implementation. The results suggest further development of positive experiences and minimizing demotivating factors in online learning environment.

Abstract-This paper concerns the cutting edge educational approaches incorporated into syllabuses of the most progressive Russian higher technical schools. The authors discuss one of the active methods in teaching foreign languages -collaborative learning implemented in e-courses. Theoretical and historical aspects of this approach are addressed, as are its suitability for engineering education and possible ways of introducing collaborative learning into ecourses. Collaborative learning technology offers wide prospects for teachers of foreign languages as it enables the use of various patterns of interaction, promotes discussion, opinion exchange, peer assessment and building an e-learning community, fosters the development of e-culture and netiquette, and prepares future specialists for work in their professional sphere under the new conditions imposed by society's technological and cultural development. This paper describes real pedagogical experience of teaching English to students using the platform Moodle, focusing on the capacity of different Moodle instruments for designing group work tasks. Recommendations are given for their usage and the results of implementing a collaborative learning approach into certain e-courses offered at Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) are presented.

Abstract-The article deals with teaching English as a foreign language with the use of modern Internet technologies. The emphasis is upon the online application Voki and beneficial ways to implement it in the classroom. The article also presents an overview of classroom activities using Voki aimed at developing students' communication skills.

Abstract-The main purpose of this work is to consider the most efficient modern educational technologies applied in teaching foreign languages to students of higher educational institutions in the Russian Federation. Special emphasis is placed on blended learning as a pedagogical approach of high priority. It is necessary to note that informationcommunication environment plays a great role in the realization of blended learning since the organization of educational process is impossible without it. The authors of the paper give consideration to one of the most relevant educational platform Moodle. An electronic course based on Moodle developed for the first year students of Tomsk Polytechnic University within teaching the discipline "Foreign Language" is reviewed in this work. The authors come to the conclusion that electronic courses designed by means of the e-learning platform Moodle are ideally suitable for the efficient blended learning implementation.

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