Institute for International Studies at Stanford University is undertaking an ambitiou

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Tradgrad, Jul 31, 2003.

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  1. Tradgrad

    Tradgrad member

    Institute for International Studies at Stanford University is undertaking an ambitious program to help revitalize the social sciences in the former Soviet Union.

    Why the social sciences?
    The unfettered pursuit of knowledge—free of the corrupting influence of an official ideology—is the essence of the academic enterprise. In no other intellectual domain did the corrosive and debilitating effect of communism exact a greater toll than on the social science disciplines of political science, history, sociology, anthropology and psychology.

    Ten years after the fall of the Soviet Union the problem endures, as Russian institutions of higher learning struggle to reform their curricula, to meet escalating student demand, and to support new research. Any such effort would tax the resources of the most affluent societies; in Russia, it must be done under conditions approaching bankruptcy.

    Why Stanford?
    Building on its three decades of experience in providing quality distance learning opportunities to consumers in the United States, most notably in Silicon Valley, Stanford has unparalleled strengths in the delivery of mixed-media courses across a range of disciplines and methodologies.

    For its part, the Institute for International Studies counts among its faculty some of this country's most distinguished students of contemporary international relations, comparative politics, and Russian studies, ensuring that the Institute is strongly positioned to make a dramatic contribution to the restoration of the social sciences in the former Soviet Union.

    The Program
    IIS has developed an interactive, web-based distance-learning project that utilizes CD-ROM video presentations, narrative text, chat-room and bulletin board elements. During the fall of 2000, the first pilot course, "International Security in a Changing World," was offered to two Russian universities: Southern Ural State University in Chelyabinsk, and Yaroslavl State University. Based on the overwhelming success of the pilot course, the program was expanded in 2001-02 to include a second course, "International Environmental Policy" and the number of participating universities grew to include Petrozavodsk and Ural State Universities. Within the next two years we hope to expand the course offerings to four and the number of participating universities to ten.

    Although Stanford provides the course content and academic leadership, course implementation is a coordinated effort between Stanford's academic staff and the local Russian instructor at each university. The primary element for ensuring the continued success of this program is on-going communication and feedback between the instructors at Stanford and the Russian universities, and the Russian students. One goal of the program is not only to be able to offer Stanford courses to Russian universities, but more importantly to create a "consortium" of partnership universities within Russia.
     

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