TECHNICAL ASPECTS OF CREATING ONLINE COURSES ON THE OPEN edX PLATFORM FOR BLENDED LEARNING

The new concept of development of higher medical education in Ukraine, which is focused on the world achievements of physician training, envisages fundamental changes in the quality of education. The need to reform and improve it is one of the requirements on the path to European integration. Online courses have many advantages over a traditional university education. They are open, that is, anyone can subscribe to them. They are really massive: instead of lecturing to an audience of 100 students, the teacher gives it to millions of students around the world, the geography of students is limited only by the possibility of Internet access. In addition, the supply of material occurs through several channels, including the possibility of interactive interaction. Analysis of the curriculum and curricula of medical education disciplines showed that it is the "online courses", from the standpoint of the organization of the educational process and didactics of teaching, that are most adapted to blended or distance learning. Objective: to create and develop an online course on the Open edX platform for motivated physicians who need knowledge for professional development, advanced training, or retraining. Materials and methods. The Open edX platform is a new, open-source software that gives students and teachers new opportunities to create, share, teach, and learn through research; adapt to individual learning needs. They are used for distance learning anytime, anywhere, with a free training schedule (within the course period). This concept is called active learning. Results. Once the work program is approved, the team members begin to develop a draft online course script. The next step is to create an online course script. This is a completed project that begins a new phase – the technical filling of the online course material for the Open edX Studio platform. Members of the course development team can moderate the training, discussion moderators can edit, delete messages, leave messages, their feedback, and comments are displayed when viewed in color. Before starting the course is beta tested. The checklist of the course should include a check of literacy, references, correctness and clarity of tasks, the presence of prefaces, and comments. The overall assessment of the course may also take into account the activity of the student, points may be credited for participating in discussions. The student's assessment display appears on the progress tab. The level of professionalism of the academic directly affects the level of training of the future specialist, and therefore the successful completion of courses on open platforms should be perceived as professional development for scientists. Certificate of completion of a course of 3 or more ECTS credits for long-term training and up to 2 ECTS credits for short-term administration of the institution may be credited as proof of advanced training for research and teaching staff of the educational institution. Conclusions. Distance learning can be as effective as traditional. Massively open online courses on the Internet are actively displacing other forms of distance learning. The involvement of alternative teaching methods and knowledge of their creation are relevant. Intercultural learning environments provide an opportunity to share experiences, solve problems together, forming relationships with colleagues around the world.