Novosibirsk (Russia), November 2006 – «In a regional university, eLearning is a factor of life quality improvement», says Dr. Olga Kazanskaya, Deputy Director of the Institute of Distance Education at the Novosibirsk State Technical University (NSTU). Demand for ICT supported learning is really high.

With twelve departments (nine technical, among them two IT departments, Business, Law, and Humanities Departments), 120 areas of training, and more than 20,000 students, the Novosibirsk State Technical University is one of the largest universities in the eastern part of Russia. Elearning is playing an increasingly important role in learning and teaching. Within the NSTU-developed virtual learning environment, called DiDesk, eCourses are conducted for university teachers or secondary schools to train prospective university students.

Elearning modules are integrated into traditional lectures, workshops, and correspondence courses. In 2005, blended learning training was started for Computer Science, Marketing, and Social Work. «There are about sixty students taking blended courses now, and they consciously chose between blended and traditional training», says Kazanskaya. «The demand for blended learning in the region is really high».

Russian students are facing almost the same problems as students all over the world: the quality of education, labor market requirements, and for many students, salary and accommodation problems. Kazanskaya: «ELearning gives them a chance to combine study and work, to be integrated into the world educational environment, and to form criteria of high quality education. It makes students more active and independent».

To boost the benefits for the students and to strengthen the role and position of the University on the world educational market and scientific community, the NSTU will foster the integration of eLearning into traditional curricula. For the near future, Kazanskaya is not content to sit back and wait for the wide spread of blended learning. «We also plan», she says, «to foster cooperation with business and the industrial sectors in the field of corporate eLearning».

The future vision is to realize ideas of knowledge management and the monitoring of students’ competencies and labor market requirements on the base of corporate information systems and the virtual learning environment of the University. Intensifying the cooperation between members of the Association «Siberian Open University» and international educational projects should also boost that development.

Title of Presentation at Online Educa: «ELearning in an Regional University as a Factor of Life Quality Improvement».Date: Thursday, 16.15 – 17.30, November 2006.Session: Examples of ICT Take-Up