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‘More than a Professional Development Programme’: U4Uonline Expands University Networking

‘More than a Professional Development Programme’: U4Uonline Expands University Networking

© HSE University

On October 26–28, the HSE University eLearning Office held the fifth U4Uonline intensive course for networking partner universities. HSE University has been creating large-scale open online courses since 2014. The university is also a co-founder of the Open Education national platform, includes online courses in its curricula, guides students through the digital learning process, and carries out quality monitoring and evaluation procedures.

HSE University’s expertise is available to its colleagues from regional Russian universities and those in CIS countries as part of the Networking Project, under which it cooperates with other universities in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Armenia. These partners can choose from more than 140 online courses from leading researchers and key industry experts at HSE University to integrate into their curricula. Students learn via the Platform for Online Learning in HSE University. The university attracts more than 40 partner universities and more than 15,000 students to these courses annually. The most popular courses are those in economics and management, as well as the wide range of courses in the humanities and social sciences.

A Growth Driver

The Networking Project stimulates the development of up-to-date teaching concepts, facilitates professional development in lecturers, and makes it possible to diversify programmes when faculty resources are limited. HSE University offers consultations and technical support for the staff of partner universities. One of the features of the Platform for Online Learning in HSE University is the Network Partner Personal Account. This enables significant automation of business processes and document flow in networking, allows the staff of universities to access demo versions of courses, connects students to courses, and facilitates timely monitoring of progress. The Personal Account also has an in-built analytics system that can be used to track progress statistics, check test answers, and generate detailed reports on video views. Analytics can be used to better understand which course materials are too difficult or too easy for students. Lecturers at partner universities can use this information to prepare seminar activities: for example, to analyse difficult assignments. After analysing the details of the educational process, curators from partner universities can send email reminders to students who are struggling with the material. Based on the results of proctored exams at HSE University, students receive certificates and network students receive official transcripts.

Partnership with HSE University is becoming a driver of digital growth for regional universities, who not only adopt the university’s technological and intellectual know-how, but who also improve their IT status by implementing their own information systems and online products. In turn, HSE University also integrates online courses from other leading universities into its own curricula. This allows universities to provide students with development trajectories not only at their alma mater, but also to adopt the best practices of lecturing textbook authors, leading laboratories, and renowned scientists at other universities.

An Online Intensive Course

U4Uonline is an annual professional development programme for staff of universities that incorporate or are planning to incorporate HSE University online courses in their curricula in the 2022/23 academic year. The programme of the fifth U4Uonline course was devoted to teaching methods for hybrid learning, work organisation in online seminars and practical classes, and the answers to difficult and frequently asked questions encountered by lecturers when conducting online courses.

Olga Plisko

Olga Plisko, Head of the Networking Project, said that the U4Uonline intensive course keeps pace with the digital development of education. ‘We follow industry trends,’ she stressed. ‘Every year, we bring something new to the course: the format transforms, the focus shifts to the most in-demand and timely topics, and the expert line-up is assembled based on the target audience. One thing that does not change is the interest in this event shown by lecturers from our partner universities. Going by the results of the 2022 intensive course, all the participants agree that U4U is more than a professional development programme.’ She continued, ‘The intensive course is steadily transforming into a base platform for communication between lecturers from Russian universities and those in the CIS. It facilitates experience exchange, mutual enrichment, and professional growth.’ ‘Building up new competencies and creating a platform for the community of lecturers are our most important tasks alongside strengthening HSE University’s partner network,’ explained Olga Plisko.

Those who were unable to attend this year’s intensive course can watch webinars on networking organised by the eLearning Office.

Material prepared by Ekaterina Zinkovskaya, HSE University eLearning Office