The Novosibirsk State University Coursera platform course "GMO: Creation Technology and Application", won the nomination "Best Practices for Creating Online Courses" at the third international competition for open online courses (EdCrunch Award 2017).
EdCrunch Award 2017 is an international open online course competition (OLC) that is conducted at the new educational technologies conference, #EDCRUNCH 2017. The goals of the competition are to identify the best practices for creating open online courses, implementing online courses in educational programs, and identifying the best courses from the consumer and expert points of view.
The contest winner was the GMO course that NSU launched on the Coursera site in 2016. It is one of the first online Russian courses on genetic modification of organisms in the world.
The course authors, Nariman Battulin, Veniamin Fishman and Alexey Menzorov teach at the Department of Natural Sciences. They used popular language to talk about the technology of genetic modification of organisms, one the most advanced achievements in science.
The technical part of the course creation was provided by a professional NSU team. The entire filming and post production process was conducted by employees at the NSU LIFE University channel and the NSU Distance Learning Department.
We really invested in this course with high-quality graphics that involved presentations, funny characters that were not only designed to be amusing but to help understand the subject, laboratory surveys, vivid examples, detailed and easy to understand visualizations of genome modification, status, stages, and technology.
According to Styazhkina, young teachers actively working in the field who are involved in the latest developments in the field of genetic engineering, help to understand a new subject and master the "skills of the future" first-hand.
The creation of genetically modified organisms is a priori creative, it requires bold, creative thinking. Therefore, in this course everything is out-of-the-box. For example, we offered our listeners a creative contest that allows them to be genetic engineers and suggest their own bioengineering ideas. This approach to working with content and the audience are certainly examples of best practices. And they work, we see that the course is popular and greatly appreciated by the participants. Some of them even came to NSU from other cities.
Last year trailers for the new NSU Coursera courses "GMOs: Creation Technology and Application" and "Precious Stones: Diagnostics and Expertise" won prizes in the category "Best Promotions for Mass Open Online Courses/MOOC" at the EdCrunch Awards 2016. Also, the NSU course "Fundamentals of Virology" took second place in the "Best MOOC Practices”.
To enroll in the "GMOs: Creation Technology and Application" course, as well as other online NSU courses, go here
Access to course materials on Coursera is free.
