Shunevych B. Development of Distance Education at Higher Schools in European and Northern American Countries

In the doctor thesis an analysis of foreign theories of distance education and the history of its development are described, the ground of the terminology on the problem is carried out, classifications of this new form of education at home and abroad are investigated; an integrated classification scheme of distance learning model is proposed, its components can be used by any educational institution for creating an own model depending on its needs and possibilities as well as forms and kinds of assessment for distance learning are considered. Besides a comparative analysis of home and foreign virtual learning environments that are often used for distance education management in Northern America and Europe including Ukraine is presented. A model of a distance course for foreign language instruction of technical specialty students is proposed as well as stages of compiling a distance course and results of its implementing are described. With the aim of distance learning popularization, training distancecourse developers and tutors, new subjects such as Theoretical Fundamentals of Distance Learning, Theory and Practice of Distance Course Compiling, Organization of Foreign Language Distance Learning at Higher Schools in Ukraine are implemented at Ukrainian higher schools as well as a city seminar for tutors and specialists, who are engaged in distance learning, was organized in Lviv.