HSE Graduate School of Business Video-Recording and Webinars Studio: Experience of Use during Pandemic
In conditions of constantly changing epidemiological profile most classes and events of Graduate School of Business are held online. Digital Learning Centre helped students and professors to organise over 100 online events during the last month.
The new video-recording and webinars studio is especially useful now. Professors can create content in advance or hold live interactive online classes (lectures, seminars and group classes). The studio has already held 20 online lectures in various disciplines for students of Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, as well as events for student project “Business Negotiations Club”.
Broadcasts can fully replace offline lectures while maintaining engagement and interaction between professors and their listeners: every student can ask a question orally or in chat and get an answer in real-time.
Nikita Teslenko, head of a student project “Business Negotiations Club”, student of “Marketing: Digital Technology and Marketing Communications” Master’s programme, talks about specificities of working in the studio:
“The studio offers possibilities for working with class materials that computers do not have. For example, professors can make notes as they usually do with a marker in front of them, and students clearly see what is written right on their screen and not in some other window. At the same time, you can broadcast a presentation in the same window the viewers see. It feels like augmented reality where pictures and text appear in the air. It’s impressive and sets the mood for productive work.”
Another advantage of online lectures is that the number of students isn’t limited to the capacity of rooms and modern safety and social distancing requirements. Any amount of students can attend a class, which allows forming a convenient schedule. All students see the lecturer well and have equal access to learning materials.
Among the advantages of working in the studio for professors: means of creating a high-quality presentation with graphic elements, audio and video boxes; possibility to write, draw and solve formulas during classes on an interactive board; showing internet pages and holding surveys.
Vyacheslav Boltrukevich, professor of “Business Administration” Bachelor’s programme, shares his impression of working in the studio:
“It requires skill and habit to work without visual contact with students, use an interactive board and cooperate in a team since in the studio you don’t work alone. However, the result is a clear payoff for both professor and students. The quality of the teaching process is much higher compared to distance working without the studio.”
Graduate School of Business students and teachers also receive comprehensive IT support for distance learning. Digital Learning Centre provides advice on blended learning format, prepares rooms for classes and offers support during exams on the StartExam platform.
In the pandemic, Graduate School of Business has every opportunity to hold classes without any restrictions and, most importantly, without losing the quality of education.