Development of Electronic Information and Educational Environment of the University 4.0 and Prospects of Integration of Engineering Education and Humanities

This article analyzes the importance and potential of e-learning and online learning in the integration of engineering education and humanities. The authors analyzed the views of both domestic and foreign experts on the role of strengthening the relationship between technical and humanitarian principles of engineering education in the renovation of a higher technical school and training of specialists with a set of competencies corresponding to challenges of the 4th industrial revolution. The key trends in the changed humanitarian component of training of engineering personnel, its relationship with the complex of technical and natural disciplines in the context of implementation of the new University 4.0 model were considered. It is concluded that effective interconnection between technical and humanitarian knowledge is a necessary component of renovation of professional training of technical specialists and the University 4.0 model. In this situation, the prospects for integration of engineering education and humanities are justifiably linked with further development and improvement of the electronic and online learning system. This option is the most optimal, cost-effective and painless (not requiring a fundamental change in the curriculum), and it coincides with the basic directions of renovation of technical universities and optimization of the educational process. Further modernization of higher professional education with regard to the trends in the knowledge economy, which determined the new University 4.0 model, is inextricably linked with the improvement of the e-learning system.