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OUR INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIP INTERESTS
IN DISTANCE AND DUAL MODE LEARNING
Priorities:
· International credit transfer agreements
· Dual diploma, dual mode programs
· Online degree programs, credit web courses
Level: undergraduate, graduate.
Possible Partnership Areas:
International Dual Diploma, Dual Mode Programs for Russian FENU Students
Since 1991 our University runs a dual diploma undergraduate program together with the University of Maryland University College (UMUC), USA. Students of the Russian-American Faculty (RAF) study on-site at FENU campus during five years and got 90 FENU hours of credit transferred to UMUC. Students take 30 more semester hours of credit from UMUC. To date, about 300 FENU students have earned UMUC undergraduate degrees in Business and Management.
In 1999 we introduced the Internet mode of learning into the FENU-UMUC joint program. About half of the American business courses are taught now by some 30 UMUC instructors via Internet for Russian students located in Vladivostok. Our students study in virtual web classrooms together with more than 500 American students registered for the same classes each semester. This partnership showed us many advantages and disadvantages of online learning, provided us with experience and understanding of what exactly we want organizing our own online degree programs.
Having good Internet access to a worldwide variety of accredited degree programs available online, we would like to provide our students with more options. Online teaching technologies are very efficient in Business & Management, especially in such fields as Business Communication and Information Management. We can enroll several dozen Russian students annually to a dual diploma program, and the number depends directly on how many options we can propose to prospective students.
One of these options is FENU Russian-Australian Program in International Business, opened in July 2001 jointly with the University of Southern Queensland (USQ), Australia.
The programs of this kind are attractive to Russian students for the following reasons:
· Many bright Russian business students want to have both Russian and international university diplomas. Vladivostok is a special place where students of this category live, work, or study. In many cases they can not leave this city for many years of onsite degree study abroad, but are interested in Internet study and onsite classes in Vladivostok.
· RAF is the most prestigious business school in the Russian Far East, and the most equipped for Internet-based study. Our University has the largest Internet bandwidth in the Russian Far East. Each student of the Russian-American Faculty has 13h/day Internet access in the RAF computer lab, and many of them have 24h/day Internet access at home. In 2001 year we have had 310 registrations of RAF students for online UMUC credit courses. 24 RAF students have earned their UMUC B.S. degrees via Internet this year. We have proved to prospective students that we are able to run a two-diploma program.
· Study in a prestigious Russian university is a "must" for most Russian prospective business students intending to work in Russia. When the students apply for an Partner degree program after receiving Russian degree, they discover that they have to follow complicated international credit evaluation procedures on an individual basis, wasting time and money without any guarantee that the process will end successfully. It makes sense to complete the credit evaluation for many students at once, within a partnership agreement between an Partner and a Russian business schools. A credit transfer agreement has another advantage for students – because of lower salary rates of university instructors in Russia, students can get a quality education for less money. Many of the students just can't afford to pay for two independent degree programs or have no time for such a long study.
New FENU partnership programs of this kind could be organized on the following schemes:
FENU part of joint study program on-site at the FENU main campus at Vladivostok, online from anywhere in Russia; Partner's part online or on-site by visiting Partner's instructors, or by onsite trained Russian instructors at FENU.
Most of all we are interested in internationally-provided courses in business, management, economics, and business communication. Students or faculty members of Partner university may also find some programs of interest at the web site of FENU online programs, OpenUniversity.ru.
We can suggest the following possible variants of joint degree programs:
(a) Russian standard 5-year (post-baccalaureate) higher degree, Partner undergraduate degree. Mutual credit transfer agreement within these programs. First one or two years of study – Russian program customized by the Partner University to meet undergraduate admission requirements. Second or third year: application for admission to the Partner University, courses of both universities according to their degree requirements.
(b) Partner graduate on-site and online study after successful completing of a FENU 5-year degree program customized by Partner University to meet graduate admission requirements.
(c) Partner executive M.B.A or M. S. program for Russian administrators, with some pre-admission and/or graduate courses to be taught by FENU faculty members according to Partner University requirements – a wide variety of online study opportunities and credit-for-experience transfer options.
FENU online degree programs and web courses for international students:
FENU Open University is a FENU subdivision established in April 2001 with mission to initiate and operate accredited distance and dual mode learning programs, based on innovative information technologies. The President of FENU Open University is Prof. Vladimir I. Kurilov, FENU President. FENU. FENU Open University owns the OpenUniversity.ru web site as a base of worldwide and nation-wide FENU distance programs.
In 2001 FENU opened admission to the first 30 Internet-based degree programs and about 50 credit web courses operated by the FENU Open University. It is the largest Russian university initiative in this field. It was preceded by many years of intensive preparation. Since 1993 FENU has been developing and using computer testing and training tools, hypertext and multimedia textbooks. One of the most important decisions on this activity was made in 1999: to create several hundreds of hypertext textbooks, covering content of most degree programs of our University. All of them have been created or will be created in html format, ready for Internet access. For developing html-based online and offline higher education programs, in March 1999 the University established the Pacific Institute of Distance Education and Technologies (PIDET). At several national educational congresses and conferences, PIDET has been recognized as a national leader in the field of computer educational technologies. It has won awards of 10 national and 4 international grant programs in the field of computer systems for education. After two years of intensive development, PIDET became a base for establishing the FENU Open University.
The first Internet promotion campain of our online degree programs (August-September 2001) was unexpectedly successfull. It attracted about twice more visitors than planned. We got applicants from Japan, USA, Canada, New Zeeland, Israel, Kazakhstan, Litva, and from about everywhere in Russia. All of them are Russian-speaking students. Sorry, we don't have many faculty members willing to teach their courses in English or some other language: but we do believe it will be possible in future. But even in already available form, the online courses may be interesting for international students with basic Russian language skills. They can study the courses with vocabulary via Internet much easier, than going to Russia for onsite study.
Starting with a few most perspective courses, we could finally design a joint two-diploma program, including an extensive set of FENU Internet-based courses.
What is special in our approach?
· Ensuring human quality of distance education: small classes (1-10 virtual students per one instructor), considerable amount of time spent by instructor on each student, written or audio email reviews of each student assignment, and customized assignments to student's individual needs. There are many cases when fewer then 5-6 students of a separate university applied for some specific on-site course in Russian-related subject, and the course got cancelled, because it is too expensive to assign an instructor for such a small class. Online study can "unite" students of several universities in a virtual classes of enough size. Besides, salaries of high-qualified professionals are several times lower in Russia, so we can afford smaller classes, provide more feedback, and create better multimedia support at the same cost.
· Providing Internet-based computer testing and training tools that will give the students various opportunities to check and improve their performance independently from personal instructors.
· Online full-text access to most required textbooks and course materials. Authors of many well-known Russian university textbooks are teaching at FENU, and it helps to create electronic versions of their courses in close coordination with computer and multimedia specialists of the University.
We are leaving features of this scheme open for discussion with the Partner University.
Other FENU interests in international university partnership:
Joint Development of Internet-Based Courses: Our University has an experienced team of programmers and multimedia specialists that can create a variety of DE tools and resources in close email interaction with Partner University faculties.
Online Testing for International Students: International students could pass standardized FENU online real time tests in many areas. These computer tests are already developed by FENU and used for testing several thousands students nation-wide. One of these tests is the Test of Russian as a Foreign Language, similar to well known TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). Having the software already developed, we can use it for creating new tests jointly with faculty members of Partner University.
Joint Online Library: At present, FENU online library includes 3800 e-books opened for free worldwide access through ftp downloading, and several dozens e-textbooks opened for students only on CD-ROMs. But it is still a long way to real online library: well indexed, interactive, well presented, full text search equipped. Thousands of FENU unique books in hard copy are still to be digitized. Basing on collections of partner universities, we could create a joint online library, as an important resource for their students.
Online Faculty Development Programs: we could create online programs of faculty development, including such activities as Internet forums, specially designed online courses, organizing resource teams responsible for email correspondence and intra-university search on academic and scientific requests from the other university.
Database of Lectures: Many students and especially faculties of both Universities may need some materials of separate lectures and presentations, not whole semester courses. We could create an online indexed database of distant lectures, including video, audio, hypertext, PowerPoint presentations, etc.
Certainly, it is just draft outline of our interests and plans in Internet and dual mode international partnerships. We are open for discussion of any particular forms of university cooperation. |
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