In January 2021, a contest for the design of Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC) was held at South Ural State University. The purpose of the contest is to improve the quality of the education systems, including formal, non-formal and informal ones, by promoting the best practices of using e-learning and distance learning technologies as part of the introduction of new learning models into the professional activities of academic staff of the university.
SUSU employees took part in the contest. The expert commission reviewed 28 contest works by the creative teams of SUSU schools and institutes. Contestants presented their ideas of the future MOOC in a wide variety of fields of expertise. The commission summed up the results of the contest and announced the winners. They were the teams of authors from the Department of Theoretical and Applied Chemistry (Organic Chemistry course, supervisor − Associate Professor Anastasia Rybakova), Department of Electrical Engineering (Theoretical Basics of Electrical Engineering course, supervisor − senior lecturer Irina Kiessh), Department of Information Security (Network Security course, supervisor − specialist in Security Protection at the Information Security Research and Education Centre of the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science Andrei Barinov), Department of Industrial Economics and Organization of Production (Fundamentals of Project Management course, supervisor − Candidate of Sciences (Economics), Associate Professor, Head of the Department Natalia Dzenzeliuk), Department of Theory and Methodology of Physical Culture and Sports, Department of Physical Education and Healthcare, and Sport Science Research Centre jointly with the Faculty of Sport and Physical Education of the University of Belgrade (Biomechanics of Motor Activity course, supervisor − Director of the Institute of Sport, Tourism and Service Vadim Ehrlich. The list of winners also includes Candidate of Sciences (Engineering), Associate Professor, Assistant Professor of the Department of Engineering Mechanics Olga Kolosova with the course in Engineering Mechanics and Candidate of Sciences (Engineering), Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Metal Forming Liudmila Radionova with the course in Materials Science. At the moment, all MOOC are being prepared for release, their launch is scheduled for September 2021.
"First of all, universities considered massive online open courses as a means of attracting the world community's attention to their educational programmes and projects. MOOC are posted on network sites, they are accessible via the Internet from anywhere in the world. Therefore, this is a very good opportunity for the university to show its worth, its teachers, and its potential as an educational institution. Moreover, MOOC are used in such a global trend as individualization of education, when a student studies a course (or its element) independently," says Alexander Demin, Director of the SUSU Institute of Open and Distance Education.
Currently, massive online open courses designed at SUSU are already available for study. On January 18, the course in Additive Technologies in Metallurgy and Mechanical Engineering was launched in English on the coursera.org platform; and from January 25, the Methods of Control and Analysis of Product Quality course content is available on stepik.org