Education news at HSE University

After a week off, HSE students returned to their online classes this week. HSE News spoke with instructors of the Vysokovsky Graduate School of Urbanism about what kinds of new strategies and approaches they are using in their online instruction.

Schoolchildren in many countries, including Russia, are now studying remotely. Russia’s first social impact project in education, in which over 5,000 students and 700 teachers from 27 schools of the Khangalassky District of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) are participating, is also transitioning to an online format. The transition will be overseen by the project creators—Project Office staff members of HSE’s Institute of Education.

Elena Aisakova teaches Russian to students of International Preparatory Programmes. Her five groups have all transitioned to distance learning. HSE News Service has asked Elena and HSE's international students what it’s like to study Russian online as well as what tips they have to help others learn effectively while being on ‘opposite sides’ of the computer screen.

Daria Romanova, third-year student of Information Science and Computation Technology, with her project, ‘Developing immersive software with a performance analysis system for teaching physics at high school’, won the Innovation Promotion Fund’s national UMNIK programme. The programme supports research and technology projects with commercial potential by young researchers.

Starting April 7, 2020, as part of the distance education support programme in Russia, Mail.ru Group will provide HSE University free use of Mail.ru Cloud Solutions and other services. These services will ensure the reliable and uninterrupted operation of HSE’s online education platform, which university students and a number of regional universities use.

HSE University has become a member of the Moscow Innovation Cluster (MIC) and joined the i.moscow digital platform. The University will be able to collaborate with other participants in the Moscow innovation ecosystem, as well as seek partners for joint research and development testing.

In the very first days of the transition to distance learning, many HSE departments had to quickly make the necessary arrangements to allow students and faculty to work remotely. The eLearning Office has been at the forefront of these efforts with staff working well into the night to keep the educational process running smoothly and on schedule. eLearning Office Head Engenia Kulik breaks down the main takeaways from these difficult weeks.

The Central Evaluation and Accreditation Agency (ZEvA) has accredited two HSE – St. Petersburg programmes in political science: the Bachelor’s Programme ‘Political Science and World Politics’ and the Master’s Programme ‘Comparative Politics of Eurasia’. The accreditation, which lasts six years without additional conditions, affirms that the programmes meet international education quality standards.