MPEI hosts Forum of Open Education for foreigners

From 28 November to 1 December, 2022, MPEI was the ground for the International Open Education Forum that gathered more than 1000 people form 34 countries, including 30 speakers from Russia and foreign countries. The target social groups for the Forum were students, young specialists, entrepreneurs and teachers from BRICS countries, CIS and ASEAN.

The Forum was carried out both in-person and remotely on the basis of an online-platform created by the Ministry of Enlightenment of Russia for the foreign students.

The Forum events were aimed at sharing the best Russian practices of teaching in the fields of technical specialties, as well as expanding cultural, humanities, scientific and educational cooperation with the countries abroad.

The MPEI Rector Nikolay Rogalev gave a welcoming speech at the opening of the forum, noting MPEI victory in the contest for the implementation of the Federal  Education Development Program: “We are grateful for the opportunity to participate in the competition to support the Russian language, since universities are in many ways the drivers for promoting the Russian language abroad”.

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Nikolay Rogalev added that MPEI has large experience in teaching the Russian language for foreign students: «We have been teaching Russian as a foreign language for a long time - 70 years ago a section of the Russian language was created at the Department of Foreign Languages, and in 1955 a separate Russian Language Department was created which is now transformed into the Center for the Study of the Russian Language. Since 1991, there has been a Preparatory Department where students from other countries study the Russian language, attend survey lectures, seminars, and so are implemented in the educational process and cultural environment of our country».

MSLU Rector Irina Kraeva mentioned that MPEI and MSLU had signed a cooperation agreement and expressed their common hope that the project would make it possible to most fruitfully implement the joint work of both universities in the field of teaching Russian as a foreign language.

From the first day, forum participants were getting acquainted with the digital educational platform www.digiteducation.ru, learning about the prerequisites for its creation and capabilities, the structure of educational materials and their characteristics, as well as mastering its interface, personal accounts, track progress in learning, and much more.

The Head of the project, Maksim Silaev, pointed out the main advantage of the digital platform: “Together with outstanding representatives of the professional community, we are ready to provide each of the students, regardless of their level of training, with the opportunity to deepen their professional knowledge in an exciting format and use innovative methods and technologies of learning Russian.”

The Forum involved leading Russian and foreign scientists and teachers, representatives of the Embassy of Uzbekistan, as well as universities in Kyrgyzstan, Vietnam and Myanmar. Among other things, they spoke about the role of the Russian language in the formation of a single educational space and the demand for Russian education abroad.

Alexander Tarasov, Vice-Rector on International Relations, noted the long-term work of MPEI in the international space and spoke about the experience of the university's participation in educational projects in Russian, such as the Centers for Targeted Training in Cuba and Kazakhstan, the branches of MPEI in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and many others.

The implementation of the advanced digital education platform was supported by the invited guests, who shared the use of distance learning resources in their environment and expressed their willingness to take part in the platform development within the framework of the round table. In particular, the contribution to the content of the Forum program was made by representatives of the State Institute of the Russian Language named Alexander Pushkin, Moscow Automobile and Road Construction State Technical University, Novosibirsk State Medical University, International Institute of Hanoi State University, Moscow Polytechnic University, Moscow State Linguistic University, National Research Technological University "MISiS", Kazan National Research Technological University and MPEI as well.

Speakers:

Turatbek Duyshenaliyev - Doctor of Science, Professor of the Department of Robotics, Mechatronics, Dynamics and Machine Strength at MPEI, MPEI Honorary Doctor, laureate of the State Prize of the Kyrgyz Republic in the field of science and technology. He spoke at the Forum about the Digital Transformation of Higher education in Central Asia.

Valeriy Ochkov - Doctor of Science, Professor of the Department of Theoretical Bases of Heat Engineering named after Mikhail Vukalovich. He shared his experience of using bilingual textbooks and bilingual lecture courses to work with foreign students using STEM technology.

Vladimir Tulsky, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Director of the Electrical Power Engineering Institute of MPEI, spoke about the digital platform for open education courses in Russian as part of the continuous training system.

Mahsud Sultanov, Director of MPEI Volzhsky branch, spoke about the experience of developing and implementing mass online educational courses using digital simulation, analytical and remote technologies at MPEI branch.

As part of the practical part of the forum, master classes, practical exercises and workshops on robotics, electric power and electrical engineering were held. The classes resonated with the audience which agreed that with a visual presentation of educational information, the learning process is more exciting, and the material is easier to remember.

The Forum program included an analysis of business communications cases on the topics of pedagogical skills, speaking techniques in front of an audience, the art of making presentations and the peculiarities of organizing training sessions in various forms. Employees of MPEI Center for Russian as a Foreign Language demonstrated the functionality of the digital educational platform in creating open courses in the Russian language.

During all days of the Forum, the platform developers and members of the working group received feedback from the participants of the events: there was a chat for participants who chose the remote form of connection, where everyone could ask a question or leave a comment; lively discussions took place during and outside the events. At the end, a number of experts in the field of education from the Mordovian State University named Nikolay Ogaryov, MSTU STANKIN, NSMU, MGSU, MADI, Kazan National Research Technological University, as well as students from Uzbekistan, Paraguay, Colombia, Tajikistan and other countries shared their opinion on functioning and development prospects of the www.digiteducation.ru platform.

“Our team is inspired by the fact that education should be open. We wish you all successful learning on our digital educational platform in the future,” - spoke Maxim Silaev, the Head of the project.