Quality label awarded to four e-courses of the Skytte Institute

In the competition “Estonian E-course Quality Label 2020”, organised by the IT Foundation for Education in Estonia, altogether four e-courses created by the staff of Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies received the quality label, two of which have also been nominated as candidates for the “E-course of the year” award.

The main objective of the quality label process is to improve the quality of e-courses in Estonia. The quality label confirms the excellent level of the e-course and is an acknowledgement to the designer and teacher. This year, 34 e-courses from Estonian general, vocational and higher education institutions received the quality label, 13 of them from the University of Tartu. With four courses, the Skytte Institute was the most successful unit at the University of Tartu.

Olga Bogdanova, Vice Director for Academic Affairs at the Skytte Institute, thanked the authors of the courses for their very good work. “We have been developing our competences in high-quality online teaching and learning both in studies as well as MOOCs for some time now, and the quality label only confirms our efforts,” Bogdanova said.

Olga Bogdanova also added that, based on the experience with the development of e-learning, the share of online learning will increase in the coming autumn semester: “This way, we will be able to offer more courses to students who cannot be present in the classroom due to restrictions on movement, as well as to those who prefer distance learning.”

“E-course Quality Label 2020” was given to the following courses:

• History of the Baltic Sea Region – also nominated for the “E-course of the year”
  Author: Heiko Pääbo
• How to Identify and Support Older Victims of Abuse – also nominated for the “E-course of the year”
  Authors: Anastasiia Turusinova, Hector C. Pagan, Pille Tsopp-Pagan, Sirkka Perttu, Mari Puniste, Mari Tikerpuu
• Understanding EU-Russia Relations: Foreign Policy Actors, Institutions and Policy-Making
  Authors: Anna Beitane, Stefano Braghiroli, Thomas Linsenmaier, Andrey Makarychev, Leonardo Pataccini Alvarez, Irakli Sirbiladze, Alina Clay
• Introduction to International Relations
  Authors: Maili Vilson, Raul Toomla, Eiki Berg, Rein Toomla

The e-course of the year will be announced on 28 May at the virtual ceremony, where the best e-courses will be presented and all e-courses with the quality label are nominated. For more information on the competition, please see the competition website (in Estonian) and the quality label application process.

For more information, please contact Olga Bogdanova, Vice Director for Academic Affairs at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, +372 737 6375, [email protected]

Forwarded by:
Maili Vilson
Research Communication Specialist
Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies
[email protected]
+372 737 6584