THE REALIZATION OF THE PROJECT «COURSERA QAZAQSTAN» AT A PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY

The article reveals the realization of the educational project «Coursera Qazaqstan» as a primary tool for non-formal education at a regional pedagogical university. The authors of the study consider massive open online courses as one of the most effective ways of professional and personal growth for future teachers. The main purpose of this study is to describe the realization of the project “Coursera Qazaqstan” at a pedagogical university and ascertain its effect on learners’ academic performance. A variety of research methods, including literature and content analysis, pedagogical experiment, and testing, were utilized to illustrate the data acquired during the study process. Moreover, non-parametric statistical criterion Mann-Whitney U-test and SPSS Statistics 27.0 program were used in this study. The pedagogical experiment involved 152 2nd year students of the Higher school of humanities of Pavlodar pedagogical university named after Alkey Margulan. Six massive open online courses on the Coursera platform were incorporated into the educational process of three educational programs of the university. The research findings demonstrated the increase of intervention group students’ academic performance by 14,5 %, giving the opportunity for personal and professional development for future teachers. Keywords: educational project, non-formal education, Coursera platform, professional growth, academic performance, pedagogical university