As new informational conditions contribute to the discovery of new ways to improve the quality of the educational process, a new integrated learning model was elaborated. The purpose of the paper is to evaluate the students’ engagement in a newly-introduced integrated learning model, identify the impact of such a model on students’ learning outcomes, and to determine if students’ engagement levels influence their learning outcomes. For our research we used qualitative and quantitative data of students’ records of professional discipline and English testing, surveys and interviews on behavioral engagement, emotional engagement, and cognitive engagement (N = 63). Results on students’ engagement showed that online activity, especially the online international project, involved students more than face-to-face classes, but at the same time some of them noted that without lectures it would be difficult, or even impossible, to participate in a project. Thus the overall engagement level was quite high. Additionally, an integrated approach positively impacted learners’ outcomes. The correlation analysis showed that learners’ engagement played an influential role and highly impacted students’ learning results. In this case we can conclude that our integrated learning model contributes to students’ involvement in the educational process and, as a consequence, allows them to achieve greater results.

The purpose of the paper is to assess the experience of Russian students in the online project class. The authors studied the impact of the international project “X-Culture” on the level of development of socio-cultural competencies of students and their knowledge of the English language. An additional aspect of the analysis was the question of the connection of students’ perception of the goal of participation in the international project “X-Culture” with their self-motivation and self-assessment of the success of the results achieved. The study used both quantitative and qualitative methods—student testing, database analysis provided by the project “X-culture”, and focus group records. The result of the participation has been inconsistent. As expected, such sociocultural competence as the level of proficiency in English increased among the majority of students, as confirmed by the values of the student’s criterion for the results of language testing, conducted before and after the project. At the same time, average indicators of sociocultural competences such as “interpersonal skills”, “creativity”, “leadership”, and “friendliness” have deteriorated during the project that is confirmed by the trends lines of time series. The focus group revealed differences in terms of participation in the X-Culture project, their connection with self-motivation, and student satisfaction with the results achieved. Students who have achieved high levels of sociocultural competences have set themselves the goals of participation in the project related to the improvement of professional competencies and intercultural communications. At the same time, students were most satisfied with their activities in the project and the results achieved, aimed at obtaining new professional knowledge and skills, and students whose goal was simply to obtain an international certificate of the project participant.

The article considers industrial applications of digital twins and their contribution to decision-making and prevention of failures in manufacturing. Virtual laboratories are described as an example of using digital twins not only in industry but also for educational purposes. The article is also focused on the value of physical and virtual investigations through the prism of content and language integrated learning approach (CLIL) and it offers recommendations for combining the two to strengthen science inquiry learning and job-relevant learning. Students conduct online investigations resulting in interdisciplinary team interaction and knowledge integration. Adopting the CLIL approach changes engineering students’ attitudes to learning a foreign language, drums up their academic interest, and strengthens their motivation. In addition, the article describes how neural networks are applied for the simulation of physical processes in a virtual laboratory. The advantages of using virtual laboratories for professional-oriented training include linking observable and unobservable phenomena, pointing out essential information, and providing online, adaptive guidance. To evaluate the efficiency of the virtual laboratory environment, we conducted an experiment to assess the effectiveness of an integrated learning course with the elements of a virtual laboratory. The sample was 48 students (23 of them were enrolled on the course based on integrated learning with elements of virtual environment; 25 students studied professional discipline and professional English separately). To collect the data two online testing on English were conducted. The professional discipline was evaluated once at the end of the semester. In addition, we conducted an online survey on motivation for students of both groups to reveal the influence of educational process organization on this indicator. The results of the experiment allowed us to ascertain that the CLIL approach in the virtual laboratory environment resulted in better outcomes and helped the students adopt a more positive attitude to learning English.

(1) Background: The main goal of this study was to determine the factors that have an influence on the continuance intention to learn in blended environments. (2) Methods: For our study, we created a research model based on the Expectation–Confirmation Model (ECM) and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), which involves a total of seven latent constructs and contains a total of eight hypotheses. A total of 301 undergraduate and postgraduate students studying at Humanity Institute of Peter the Great Polytechnic University voluntarily participated in the study. The online survey consisted of 22 items that determined the seven indicators studied and was conducted in the spring semester of 2021. For our analysis and hypothesis testing, we used PSS 24.0 and SmartPLS 3.0 programs. (3) Results: According to the results of this study, all the proposed hypotheses were confirmed, which confirmed the influencing power of research model indicators. Also, it was revealed that such indicators as confirmation and attitude are the key factors that affect the continuance intention to learn in a blended environment. (4) Conclusions: As the COVID-19 pandemic is an ever-changing situation, it is important to understand student perceptions of blended learning and manage their continuance intention to learn in such environments. This study contributes to such knowledge and provides insightful implications for academia.

This study examines how the gender of students and their level of education (undergraduate or postgraduate students) influence affective learning outcomes in a mixed environment. The research model is based on four key indicators: satisfaction, perception of experience (perceived usefulness, ease of use, and perceived behavioral control), perception of benefits (general learning effectiveness, knowledge sharing and increasing, study skills improvement, and sense of progress), and academic performance. Moderating factors, including gender and education level, were used to define the distinctions in the measured results. The study was conducted in the fall semester of 2021. The target samples were students of undergraduate and postgraduate levels studying during the semester in the blended environment. A total of 513 students from Peter the Great Polytechnic University took part in the research. The online questionnaire was conducted to define the affective learning outcomes of students in the blended environment and the influence of affective outcome factors on academic performance. The Likert-type five-point scale was used to determine all the variables. For our statistical analysis, we used SPSS 24.0 and SmartPLS 3.0 programs. Two tests were implemented to determine the differences between gender and education level in relation to students’ affective learning outcomes. Finally, our study revealed how distinctive aspects of affective learning outcomes impact academic learning outcomes in a blended format using linear regression analysis. According to the results obtained, the results between males and females were similar and academic performance results were mostly predicted by satisfaction level. A difference was revealed between undergraduate students’ results and postgraduate students’ results. Perceived benefit has a greater effect on academic performance for postgraduate students, while satisfaction level has a greater effect on academic performance results for undergraduate students than for postgraduate students.