On-site seminar-presentation of the 1st SUNRAISE MOOC
On-site seminar-presentation of the MOOC “Sustainable Development of Mountain Territories in the Context of the Concept of Ecosystem Services” was held at Gorno-Altaisk State University on September 17, 2020. Though the MOOC in Russian was launched in April 2020 and its English version on June 2020, there was no way to organize such presentation earlier due to COVID-19.
The event was organized in order to present the structure and the content of the MOOC; to share the challenges the developers faced while working on the course and to jointly find the solutions to such problems in the future; to discuss how this e-learning resource or its parts can be used in the classroom and out-of-class activities of GASU students and schoolchildren of its “adopted” schools; and to brainstorm other potential massive open online courses that could be developed by GASU.
The participants showed much interest in the presented information. They agreed that all materials had medium difficulty level, were very well organized, and could be recommended for students and a wide range of people interested in the issues of sustainable development of mountain territories and ecosystem services, including schoolchildren. The fact that the MOOC had both Russian and English versions was also identified as its advantage. After a productive brainstorming the participants came to the conclusion that it would be desirable to develop similar massive open online educational resources, but more regionally oriented, for example, flora and fauna of the Altai Republic, unique geological formations, historical and archaeological heritage of Altai, etc.