How do you estimate the eLearning market in the CIS countries - for business, for universities, for schools?

Prof. Yuri Rubin: The eLearning market in Russia is only now taking shape and has huge potential. Firstly, Russia is a vast country from the geographical point of view; therefore in many remote regions, education can be received solely through eLearning services. Secondly, it is a traditional assumption in Russia that education of the highest quality is provided exclusively by educational institutions located in capital cities - Moscow or St. Petersburg. Thus today the real e-education market is determined primarily by these two facts.

Besides, there are some purely business factors. The point is that today the young Russian business sector is becoming increasingly aware of the vital importance of permanent training and retraining of staff, as well as of large-scale cooperation between business and higher education in view of personnel development for business prosperity. That is why the key issues of cooperation between employers and businessmen, on the one hand, and higher education institutions or training centres, on the other, with the purpose of learning on the workplace or target training are the subject of wide speculation today. This is very promising from the point of view of eLearning development in Russia and, no doubt, such huge potential will be activated in the coming year or two.

One should distinguish between full eLearning and partial eLearning, and nowadays it is full eLearning programs offered by Moscow universities that are in high demand. Regional educational institutions should also use some eLearning elements as components of full-time learning or extramural courses, no matter whether they are interactive elements, multimedia elements or e-Testing elements. We must add that today eLearning is not widely spread in Russia only because there is a lack of the Internet channels in the regions. When Russia becomes better provided with technologies and online education becomes more available, the popularity of eLearning will grow rapidly.

It is also worth mentioning that eLearning has prospects in the sphere of continuous education, i.e. a student can interchange his studies by using eLearning elements. For example, while studying at junior college, students could simultaneously receive education within the framework of secondary or even higher education programs. After graduating from junior college, a student can continue education within the framework of higher education programs using eLearning tools and study two or even more fields of expertise.

Do you find any competition between the CIS countries in this sector or is there a trend for collaboration?


Prof. Yuri Rubin: I suppose we cannot speak of any competition between the CIS countries yet, since today none of the CIS countries has much to boast of in terms of well-developed eLearning programs, except for the Russian Federation perhaps, which is the most advanced in this field so far. Apparently, some elements of competition will appear later between educational institutions involved in appropriate education sectors rather than between countries.

At the same time, it is evident that apart from competition there constantly arise opportunities for cooperation, which are conditioned by different reasons. For example, advanced higher education institutions cooperate with the higher education institutions that are only taking their first steps in the eLearning sphere. Cooperation also exists between higher education institutions from different countries that use different languages of instruction. The higher education institutions cooperate within the framework of the general system of standards and approaches to quality assessment. The universities, which realize flexible educational models by using eLearning tools when students can be transferred from one university to another, cooperate as well.

In the future, we are going to witness some elements of competition and, of course, active cooperation in many spheres. I am convinced that soon we are not only going to witness elements of cooperation among the CIS countries but also with European countries in general as many of Russia's higher education institutions promoting eLearning will become interested in working with advanced West European higher education institutions.

What do you expect from distance learning for the region in the near future?

Prof. Yuri Rubin: Today the CIS countries have all the conditions for rapid development of eLearning, and in the near future, many higher education institutions will be able to take an active part in using eLearning tools. We expect an increase of interest in eLearning on the part of enrollees and students on the one hand, and on the part of universities on the other. For the last couple of years, the CIS countries have realized the necessity and significance of using eLearning tools; for example in Russia there are several higher education institutions that can be considered advanced in this sphere.

In particular, Moscow University of Industry and Finance (MIFP) was one of the first in Russia to enter the eLearning market. In the late 1990s, MIFP took part in a large-scale experiment conducted by the Russian Federation's Ministry of Education that was aimed at introducing eLearning tools into education. Today MIFP has created the uniform standard approach to the use of eLearning tools, which manifests itself in learning process arrangement, learning and instructional materials support, instrumental base, didactics, personnel and personnel training for performance of these functions. We apply different tools, various media, multimedia technologies, and on-line and off-line learning tools in all spheres of our activity.

MIFP was the first in Russia to apply multimedia technologies in teaching, and in the year 2001 the first educational portal offering full eLearning support for Russian-speaking higher education students was launched. For several years, we have been advocating the concept of integrated education, allowing us to avoid traditional exams and receive integrated rating assessments instead and applying distributed seminars and trainings in teaching.

Among major trends of eLearning development in the CIS countries, I would like to mention that in the near future governments and academic communities of the region in question will lay special emphasis upon eLearning quality assurance; in this respect, experience in education quality control and assurance, accumulated by the leading Russian and world institutions, would be of great use.