CHOOSING A VIDEOCONFERENCE SERVICE FOR PROVIDING DISTANCE EDUCATION

The transition of institutions of general secondary and higher education to distance education creates new conditions for the organization and logistical support of this process. It is necessary to realize that for the effectiveness of information transfer from a teacher or lecturer to pupils or students, it is important to operate a convenient and functional remote communication tool. Today, these are the services of video conferences: Google Meet, Zoom, Skype, Microsoft Teams. For a rational choice of service, it is important to determine the criteria by which they can be compared: technical requirements for the parameters and resources of computer equipment, the number of simultaneous connections of participants in the educational process, the possibility of video conference moderation, the use of multimedia technologies and means of visualizing verbal information. The purpose of the article is to reveal the method of choosing video conferencing services in accordance with the teacher’s needs. Objectives of the article: 1) clarify the concept of «video conference» as a tool of the educational process; 2) determine the criteria for choosing a video conference service; 3) describe and compare the functionality of popular video conferencing services from the point of view of providing distance education. Methodology. The following research methods were used to solve the identified tasks in the work: searching for articles, monographs, and educational manuals using Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science search engines; theoretical analysis of scientific works; citation of research results; summarizing the results of scientists’ research; clarification of the main definitions of the researched problem; questionnaire using Google Form. Scientific novelty. The concept of «video conference» has been clarified in relation to its use in ensuring the educational process. Criteria for the rational choice of a video conferencing service for conducting lessons for students of secondary or vocational education institutions and lectures, laboratory or practical for students of higher education institutions are proposed. Conclusions. In the conditions of the remote form of organization of education, it is important to choose a convenient and maximally functional tool for establishing two-way interaction between the participants of the educational process. Such a tool can be one of the well-known video conference services, for example, Google Meet, Zoom, Skype, Microsoft Teams. However, their functionality is suitable for performing a certain list of educational tasks, therefore it is advisable for each teacher to individually choose and define a common service for parallel classes or an educational institution