HSE Online Shares Achievements for 2022
What were the main digital achievements of online education at HSE University in 2022? How did HSE become the Online University of the Year? Why do HSE’s intellectual innovations surpass the product developments of leading EdTech companies? HSE Online shares the results of its activity in 2022.
In 2022, HSE Online projects provided significant information for reports on federal TV channels and publications in leading media, including RBC, MK, and Rusbase. HSE experts actively participated in award ceremonies and industry forums, while their speeches at panel discussions were quoted in the media. HSE Online also launched its own podcast, a telegram channel, and also developed a news section on the eLearning Office website.
Online in First Place
At the Innovation Time Award, HSE University presented full-time online bachelor's and master's programmes and became the leader in the Innovation of the Year nomination (Educational Services category). The award was held as part of the forum, which featured reports from representatives of banking, investment, IT and government companies. Elena Guseva, Head of the HSE Online Degree project, participated in the business programme of the forum and the session ‘Innovation and Reality: Facing Current Challenges’, presenting the case ‘Evolution of Education: Transition from MOOCs to Specialisations and Online Programmes’. Elena shared the experience of digital growth and the evolutionary development of the university and explained how HSE moved from certificates to diplomas.
HSE University won the award of the Russian ‘Effective Education’ competition and was recognised by the expert jury as the Online University of the Year. The award annually attracts more than 150 applications from representatives of the education business and the HR industry. Yulia Remezova, Director for eLearning at HSE University, spoke on the readiness of online education to meet the challenges of the labour market and online tools that allow HSE to prepare sought-after employees at the round table ‘Digital Transformation of Education: Current Trends and Development Prospects’ organised as part of the competition.
HSE's Master of Data Science programme reached the final of the Digital Learning 2022 award in the ‘Online Programmes’ category, and also won the Audience Award. HSE was the only university to reach the final. The nominees from business—NLMK and Otkritie Broker projects—competed with the first English-language master's programme in Russia implemented entirely online. The programme has already trained two cohorts of master’s graduates.
HSE University took part in EdCrunch Reload, Europe's largest conference on new technologies in education, held in Kazakhstan on November 23–24. Yulia Remezova shared HSE’s digital expertise as part of the panel discussion on the prospects of giant online universities in the changing education paradigm. The discussion was moderated by Isak Froumin, HSE Professor, Head of the Observatory on Innovation in Higher Education, Jacobs University in Bremen. Representatives of the General Assembly private educational organisation (USA), Arizona State University (USA), Anadolu University (Turkey), Allama Iqbal Open University (Pakistan) also took part in the discussion.
More than 1,500 Online Students
In 2022, HSE University became the leader of digital higher education in Russia, with the number of students of full-time online master's and bachelor's programmes exceeding 1,500. The university’s portfolio of full-time online programmes now includes 16 comprehensive academic products. The university enrolled 958 online students, which is 56% more than last year. In 2023, HSE will open six more new online programmes. One of the main advantages of online studying is the opportunity to get a high-quality education at one of the best universities in Russia from anywhere in the world. Students from different cities in Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Switzerland, Lithuania, France, Norway, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, India, China, Germany and other countries study at HSE Online.
More than 15,000 online students from universities in Russia and CIS countries are now enrolled in online courses from leading HSE scientists. In 2022, the number of online courses has grown to 350.
Specialisations on the HSE Platform
Nine online specialisations are available on the HSE online platform in the form of a series of courses (from 3 to 7) and a final project. The project is based on practical case studies and real industry data and is only implemented if all prior courses have been successfully completed. Specialisations are integrated into the educational content of bachelor's and master's programmes implemented online. They allow students to test the content, programme concept, presentation of materials by lecturers and digital format as a whole. The specialisations help students focus on a specific area of competence and provide micro-credentials, which are confirmed by a certificate from HSE.
This type of specialisation helps students to decide whether they want to devote several years to training and get a degree, or instead focus on working on relevant skills to change their career track or develop their career in a short time. The first two weeks of these video lectures are available to try free of charge.
OneButton Studio as a Quality Standard
The active development of blended learning education at HSE University necessitated the launch of independent recording studios. One patented development of the HSE eLearning Office is OneButton, a self-recording studio for local online courses that allows users to quickly create high-level educational video content without the participation of operators and editors. Stable work is ensured by a single regulation for free access to the studios of all HSE departments and teachers. A unified studio booking system was also developed and implemented via users’ personal accounts.
When working on the studio project, the developers took into account the requests of teachers and course developers, so its functionality provides different formats for recording: a presentation mode, writing and drawing functions, computer screen recording, etc. The interface is intuitive and convenient for course creators. Producers help creators to immerse themselves in the process as much as possible, give recommendations, monitor compliance with regulations and provide comprehensive support.
In terms of innovative solutions and technological equipment, OneButton Studio has a standard that allows users to scale their projects and create studios that meet modern trends and the needs of departments while taking into account the corporate requirements of the university.
HSE Online Podcast
This year, HSE Online launched a podcast featuring teachers, experts from online programmes, and online students. Listeners and viewers of the podcast will learn how the programmes were created and what challenges their academic leaders had to face, how they managed to turn digital content into a living ecosystem, what amazed online students, how they found a common language with their classmates, and what they plan to do after receiving their degree. The HSE Online podcast is a space for open communication on informal topics, an opportunity to learn more about each other. The podcast shares how HSE’s academic environment can inspire students to achieve more.