On December 21, 2021, UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (UNESCO IITE) and International Center for Higher Education Innovations (UNESCO-ICHEI) co-organised the first of a series of webinars on digital transformation of higher education.
The webinar gathered more than 100 participants from Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Uzbekistan and other. The event was focused on the development of digital competencies of teaching staff and administrations of universities. Alexander Molchanov, Head of the Professional E-Education Project, member of the Public-Business Council of the Russian National Project “Education”, and the curator of the professional programme of the Moscow International Educational Fair, was invited as the guest speaker of the webinar. In his presentation, Mr. Molchanov took a deep dive into the influence of technological and socioeconomic development on the transformation of modern universities and into the key vectors of the digital transformation of higher education, as well as analysed the digital competency profiles for teachers and other professionals working in the higher education system, models of digital competencies development and assessment.
During the Q&A session, Alexander Molchanov answered numerous questions raised by the webinar participants concerning advantages and drawbacks of online learning, future of digitalization of universities and possibilities for alternative ways of the higher education development, universities networking and formats of the professional development of educators in universities.
The webinar was moderated by Tatiana Murovana, Programme Specialist at UNESCO IITE, and Mingshun Xu, Programme Officer at UNESCO-ICHEI. Video recording of the event is available at the website of the International Institute of Online Education https://www.iioe.org/news/IITE-IIOE_Co-Organised_Webinar_in_Russian.