First UT online course goes live on Udemy

This fall marks the first time a course by the researchers of the University of Tartu goes live on Udemy, one of the largest international online learning platforms.

Online course “Introduction to Internet Voting”, developed by the Senior Researchers in Technology Studies Kristjan Vassil and Mihkel Solvak, is available on Udemy - an online teaching platform with 15 million active learners. Currently, this is the only University of Tartu MOOC, massive open online course, offered at such a scale on the international online platform.

“This is a great way to contribute to the international community of online educators and to showcase a type of research conducted by the university and the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies to students around the world,” said one of the course’s creators, Senior Researcher Mihkel Solvak. “The system which has become a common method of voting across all groups in Estonia, is unique on a global scale and certainly deserves further introduction.”

“Introduction to Internet Voting” is a glimpse into the University’s 8-week MOOC "Diffusion and Impact of Internet Voting" (SVJS.TK.003), which in the previous openings managed to attract more than 520 participants globally, coming from such places as the US, India, Russia, UK, Brazil, Iceland, Kenya and New Zealand. The 8-week MOOC is going to be open for the 3rd run on 9th of October, and is currently open for registration.

During the course, students are going to learn about the main prerequisites for the evolution of e-government, how a typical e-voter looks like, how fast people vote online and how it relates to their age. The course will also examine whether e-voting is politically biased, how costs are related to the decision to vote and whether vote verification has increased trust towards e-voting.

The course is created with the support of the European Social Fund program "Increasing Digital Literacy" and Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications.

Additional information on the Udemy course can be found on the platform and the 8-week MOOC on the University’s website.

All interested in the regular 8-week course (“Diffusion and Impact of Internet Voting”, 2 ECTS), can register here

Course introductory video is available here

Contact: Anna Beitane, Project Manager of the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University of Tartu, anna.beitane@ut.ee, +372 5834 637