SFU ecologists jointly with the teams of Gorno-Altaisk State University and Russian State Hydrometeorological University announced intermediate results of the project and presented massive open online courses to the potential providers of the work placements – representatives of national parks and national reserves.

The project SUNRAISE has been implementing in the SibFU since the end of 2017 by means of the European Commission grant. The milestone of the project is to upgrade the curricula in ecological education, to develop new courses and disciplines based on potential employers’ needs. To achieve all the project objectives, SibFU team collaborates with the teams from other universities of Russia, India, Bhutan and EU countries. The e-learning platform SUNRISER with MOOCs in English and Russian available has been launched to disseminate the project results.

The project coordinator, associate professor of the SibFU School of Ecology and Geography Nina Pakharkova noted that the mission of the seminar is to coordinate the following cooperation and pilot the training courses and MOOCs already developed.

«The courses are open to everyone and outlined in easy and understandable manner. National Park “Stolby” and Sayano-Shushenskiy Natural Reserve are taking part in evaluating and piloting the courses. They are the potential employers of our students that’s why their opinion truly matters, — Prof. Nina Pakharkova said. — Also today we are showing the best practices, labs that we use to develop new courses as it is non-productive to just rewrite the textbooks. For example, the data on bio-testing is included into Environmental Biomonitoring course».

The participating teams from other universities also summarized the intermediate results.

«We are finding more and more points of contacts with the colleagues from SibFU and RSHU: joint field apprenticeships, summer schools, opportunities to use the e-courses. During the project implementation, we got the unique chance to arrange the interdisciplinary research of different ecosystems. We have already worked with Russian and international teams that is highly important. The experience of e-learning happened just in time when we’ve all faced COVID-19 challenges», — said Natalia Iurkova, GASU rector’s assistant on International Affairs.

Denis Alekseev, head of the RSHU Department on Applied and Systems Ecology pointed out: «I was curious to witness how work is organized in the SibFU as I personally conduct the lectures on bio-indication and bio-testing in my university. SUNRAISE project infers the exchange of knowledge and methodology and that is important. The main achievement of the project is new collaborations and new opportunities. Development of student mobility and on-site apprenticeships on field stations of different universities are of high interest. Nowadays the agreement between RSHU and SibFU is in the process of consideration and signature with the following plans to develop network MSc program».

Source link (SFU website): http://news.sfu-kras.ru/node/24583