On December 6, the ICEF International Academic Committee (IAC) and a round table on online education were held in London. After the academic events, a tour on renewed LSE campus was organized for guests.
The ICEF International Academic Committee (IAC) brought together members of the LSE and HSE to discuss the college's further development strategy. Every year the Committee determines the lines of action that will help the college maintain the international competitiveness on the level with the world's leading scientific and educational institutions.
British side was represented by LSE.ICEF project members – Dr Christian Julliard, Dr Georgy Chabakauri, Dr Kevin Sheedy, Dr Jörn Rothe. ICEF Director Sergey Yakovlev, MSc programme Academic Supervisor Maxim Nikitin and double degree BSc programme Academic Supervisor Oleg Zamkov represented the HSE side. On the agenda were the results of the year, innovations, prospects and programme developing.
The Committee's meeting ended with a tour around the new LSE Сentre Building, which was opened at the beginning of this academic year, just like HSE new campus. The Сentre Building is a 13-story building, allocated to political science department and classrooms for students' independent work. The LSE Alumni Center is also located there.
The round table discussion focused on prospects and best practices of using digital technologies in university education in the field of economics and finance. Among the participants were Sergey Yakovlev, Oleg Zamkov, LSE Undergraduate Programme of Economics Director Dimitra Petropoulou, Senior Learning Technologist of EDEN Centre Kris Roger and Head of operations VLE Team Steve Bond.
Sergey Yakovlev in his speech suggested adding digital elements to traditional educational system and gradually developing teachers' confidence in tech innovations. In addition, he noted that communication skills are extremely important, and students can only develop them face-to-face in classes. The day before, at ICEF Alumni Reunion, some graduates mentioned that the inspiring communication with ICEF professors and debate skill played a huge role in their career and life. Oleg Zamkov spoke about the сurrent status, tasks and challenges in the use and development of digital technologies on ICEF educational programmes.
Kris Roger mentioned the issues of teachers' digital literacy, critical attitude to technologies and intellectual property. Steve Bond emphasized the availability of digital data and opportunities to pause and review the lectures. Dimitra shared her experience in teaching a course in economics, where blended learning was used – about 130 students come to offline lectures, and most study online, many students use the Padlet application.
Participants discussed a very important and extremely discursive topic on the advantages of using digital technologies in teaching and learning. Based on the example of VLE online statistics, conclusions were drawn on how to most effectively build training in the “flipped classroom” format, making it possible to study materials at home by videо and to discus them face-to-face in class afterwards.
Some further important questions were discussed, namely how to measure the effectiveness of the digital learning and whether fundamental education (for example at ICEF) needs to shift its focus towards the online studies. The reached conclusion was to try and find balance between new technologies and conservative elements of the educational system, where tech does not replace, but complements them. This synergy issue is the main direction where universities will work on in the near future.
About the renewed LSE campus
Until now, campus was a “morphology of crookedness,” as The Guardian wrote, and somehow coexisted with the lanes and streets of Old London. Student like birds perched on any ledges and crevices to work or just drink coffee, and some of these poetic-minded journalists compare the LSE campus to "lying fur seals on rocks".
The authors of campus renewed, in particular the brand new central 13-story building on Houghton Street and Claire Market, were architects Ivan Harbour, Tracy Meller and Andrew Morris of Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners (RSHP), whose goal was to create geometry and open spaces – and they succeeded. The former of RSHP was made a Pompidou Center in Paris almost a half year ago, so the handwriting of RSHP are light, terraces, conciseness, minimalism and respect for the historical context of old city. Now the multistorey LSE maze is one of London’s most remarkable public spaces with its own urban square.
