Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University is hosting a group of foreign experts from Portugal, Spain, Romania and Israel within the framework of the “Erasmus+” project “Optimization of teaching and academic inclusion using distance teaching and learning” (Love Distance). The aim of the visit is to get to know to the current results of the project as well as agree on future plans with the university administration. The experts met the Rector of BSU, Professor Merab Khalvashi, the academic staff and the students. The members of the expert group also got acquainted with the material and technical base of the university and viewed the laboratory equipped with technologies purchased for recording online courses within the project.
BSU has been involved in the “Erasmus+” project “Optimization of teaching and academic inclusion using distance teaching and learning (Love Distance)” since 2020 together with ISU and TESAU. Involvement in the mentioned project was a big challenge for the university, because at the project financing stage, in 2019, the experience of distance learning was more or less unclear to the Georgian education system. Due to the influence of the pandemic period, distance learning became relevant, and accordingly, the experience gained within the project significantly helped the university and the staff implementing the project to use and implement online tools along with traditional teaching methods. It became possible to pilot the tools received and shared from foreign colleagues within various training courses; trainings were conducted with different target groups: students, public school teachers, university academic staff and trainers of BSU professional program management and continuing education center. The purpose of the mentioned trainings was to raise the IT competencies of the trainees, to promote the creation and use of various digital resources during the training process/training planning, and to familiarize them with various electronic platforms/applications.
The staff from the university involved in the project went through several stages of training, within which they got acquainted with the tools for developing didactic programs in a virtual learning environment, various methodologies and techniques of e-learning, innovative educational approaches based on ICT, various online platforms and the specifics of their use.
In the future, the university plans to record and offer online courses and distance training for the main target groups of the project, such as: representatives of ethnic minorities, people in remote, peripheral areas, women in early marriage, people with disabilities, etc.
The project will be completed in August 2023.
Photo by: Love:dist@nce – all rights reserved
