Prof. Baeva Joins International Program in Shanghai

Prof. Lyudmila Baeva, Dean of the Department of Social Communications of Astrakhan State University, has taken part in an international program for researchers at Shanghai Open University in China.

The event is taking place from October 31 to November 12, 2016. Prof. Baeva became its participant thanks to her winning a grant of Shanghai Open University; the grant was related to leadership and innovations for modern open education. Ten researchers from Great Britain, the United States, Spain, Indonesia, Zambia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Nepal, Russia, and South Africa won that grant.

On November 06-07, 2016, all the ten invited researchers took part in the UNESCO International Conference “Leadership and Innovation for the Future in Open and Distance Learning” at Shanghai Open University. As for Prof. Baeva, she gave her report in the section that discussed issues of leadership; her report concerned an educational project implemented at Astrakhan State University, which aims to develop students’ leadership skills by involving them in teamwork (e.g. at classes of Philosophy). This educational project applies information technologies: communication with students takes place on a virtual platform during a week between the classes; the students are given assignments; they make up teams and discuss their homework and interesting events; they also publish relevant news, photos, and videos related to the themes of their seminars. Prof. Baeva’s report was of special interest for the Conference participants, who gave a positive feedback.

Open education is a megatrend of the modern culture. Specialized open universities operate in many countries; they teach hundreds of thousands of students. Studying this experience should contribute to the development of modern distance technologies in the Russian educational system and make it closer to worldwide standards.