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Modern technology is providing a broad foundation for a revolution in higher education worldwide. The advent of the Internet and other information technologies make Stanford's teaching and research readily available to scholars and students across the globe. While many international distance learning programs focus on business or the hard sciences, the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University is undertaking an ambitious program to help revitalize the social sciences in the Russian Federation. Why the social sciences? The unfettered pursuit of knowledge is the essence of the academic enterprise. In no other intellectual domain did the effects of communism exact a greater toll than on the social sciences. Social science education is the cornerstone for the growth of a strong civil society. By providing students with alternative world views and educational standards, we are strengthening the students' future ability to formulate their own opinions about global events. At the same time, we are helping the Russian regional universities attract the best students in their regions, thereby promoting a pool of talented students that might otherwise travel to Moscow or abroad. 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. Goals
History The FSI Distance Learning Initiative is a natural outgrowth of the New Democracy Fellowship Program, launched in 1995. Since its inception, the NDF Program has hosted 14 PhD candidates in five social science disciplines from 11 countries of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. With a goal of providing advanced educational opportunities to a far greater number of students, and with the encouragement of current New Democracy Fellows, the FSI Initiative on Distance learning was created. Through the Initiative we hope to create a consortium of partner Russian universities. As a first step, Stanford entered into a successful one-year pilot project in 2000 during which the program offered one course, International Security in a Changing World, to two Russian universities: Southern Ural State University in Chelyabinsk and Yaroslavl State University. Since that time, IDL has expanded to offer five courses to 10 universities.
Model IDL has developed an interactive distance-learning program that utilizes CD-ROMs, narrative text, chat-room and bulletin board formats, in a distributed, tutorial environment. Although Stanford provides the course content and academic leadership, course implementation is a coordinated effort between Stanford's academic staff and the faculty at the participating universities. The primary element for ensuring the continued success of the program is on-going communication and feedback between the respective instructors at Stanford and the participating universities and Russian students. The local Russian instructors play a crucial role by engaging the students in group discussions in order to assess their grasp of the issues presented in the lectures and to encourage them to express their thoughts and opinions. To ensure meaningful dialogue between the Stanford academic staff and the Russian students, participants attend chat sessions with the Stanford instructors. Instructors who have participated in these sessions assert that it is a very stimulating experience to interact with the Russian students, and that they are impressed with their grasp of the subject content. In addition, the students are given weekly written assignments that are posted on the course bulletin board and are graded by a Stanford teaching assistant. The Stanford TAs are also available for as-needed 'virtual office hours' in the course chat rooms. Our immediate goal 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. This consortium provides support to their colleagues and to Stanford through networks of technical staff and local instructors. To this end, local instructors from the consortium institutions meet once a year in Moscow or Stanford for training and institution-building seminars. To further institution-building aspects of the consortium,
in the fall of 2003 IDL inaugurated its first annual student conference,
to be held at Yaroslavl State University. 40 students presented original
research papers on topics related to the IDL courses, such as nuclear
weapons proliferation, terrorism and the media, and ethnic conflict. In the spring of 2006, IDL will conduct a NPT negotiations simulation, under guidance from Scott Sagan, director of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at FSI. 40 Russian students and 5 Stanford undergraduates will participate in the simulation. Criteria for Participating Universities We will continue to solicit university interest for future years based on the following criteria:
Future Our decision to develop courses in the political science discipline focusing primarily on issues of international security is based on feedback received from numerous Russian universities. In the near term, IDL is concentrating its efforts in political science by developing a package of complementary courses that includes methodology and theory along with others addressing issues in international relations, conflict management, and international environmental policy. With adequate funding, we intend to expand the curriculum to include course series in other disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. Our ultimate goal is to adapt these courses for use in other countries that would welcome a challenging educational experience and which have identified a need to build upon their existing curriculum in international security issues. IDL Partners
This program has been made possible by the generous support of these organizations at Stanford University: Office of the Provost and The Carnegie Corporation of New York |
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FSI/IDL
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