Experience of technical disciplines remote training at the St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering

This paper reveals the main trends and characteristics of the use of multimedia means in distance learning of technical subjects at graduate schools; analyses the peculiarities of presentation and perception of information in multimedia environment; studies genre and topic structure of multimedia means used for distance learning. The author has developed a technology of distance learning for teaching such subjects as “Theoretical Mechanics” and “Material Mechanics”; the technology is based on the use of tests and test training setsin the theory course, which is accompanied by video materials filmed during lectures and practical seminars. A distance learning system will allow to: educate an unlimited number of students during unlimited time; check the student knowledge during the exams, track and control study results and dynamics for each student regardless of his/her physical location, create exclusive online courses based on traditional courses of experienced educators, significantly reduce in-class hours for full-time students, therefore, reducing the resources spent on office facilities, significantly increase the profits of school comparing to those received from traditional education. The Moodle system, which is an application for online learning, was used as the basis for the online course. The most useful multimedia technologies as well as technologies requiring improvements have been identified. The promising option of multimedia technology with the use of virtual reality has been proposed.