Innovation in Education

The University aims at improving the quality and efficiency of education through implementing new educational models and technologies.

 

The establishment of the Institute of Open and Distance Education has allowed SUSU to implement innovative technologies in its existing training programmes, as well as to offer a number of Russian- and English-language courses in the massive open online course (MOOC) format aimed at attracting applicants and boosting the University's image.

 

The University's plans include making its MOOC-format courses available on such leading international forums as edX and Coursera.

Innovations in education

Among the University’s MOOCs are:

• Advances in Database Systems Development;
• Cheminformatics;
• Distributed Computing;
• Environmental Economics and Natural Resource Management;
• Organic chemistry;
• Linear Sobolev Type Equations;
• Spectral Theory of Differential Operators.

SUSU has a MOODLE-based distance learning system, called E-SUSU 2.0. In the short term, the University plans to upgrade it to a complete Learning Management System (LMS). LMS will encompass all educational programmes and will help to guide and support students through all stages of their education and subsequent career growth.

At the admissions stage, the LMS will offer career guidance (interactive modelling of future career options), and will allow for participating in academic competitions, enrolling in pre-admission courses and submitting online applications. For the University, the LMS will provide a rating of applicants and an opportunity to recruit young talent. 

Learning Management System

Throughout the educational process, the LMS can become a virtual personal manager for the student, providing access to such information as curriculum, class schedules, academic performance and personal career path. This "smart" learning system will help to reveal student's weaknesses and gaps in the process of mastering various disciplines. It will also suggest how to overcome them by redirecting the student to disciplines or sections studied earlier.

When used by the teaching staff, the LMS will help to improve the learning process by introducing modern interactive teaching techniques and means for achieving better communications with students, as well as offering tips on self-development.  The integration of graduates' personal accounts into the University's LMS will help SUSU keep in touch with them, as well as to improve employer engagement and develop vocational training programmes.

SUSU strives to the improve the quality of education + AT this stage, the teachers will be encouraged to take and pass MOOC-format courses through edX or Coursera. Major improvement will be achieved through implementation of the MOOCs technology. On this stage, the teachers will be encouraged to take and pass MOOC-format courses through edX or Coursera, and eventually to prepare their own MOOCs. Pilot projects show that such initiative significantly improves teaching quality: teachers first get to know the new technology and best practices in teaching and then get the chance to examine themselves and to work under the innovative schemes.