Distance learning students in Russia reflect benefits of IIS/SCIL collaborative study

Russian students who took distance learning courses based on Stanford curriculum showed the greatest development of critical thinking skills when the teaching integrated tutored video instruction with a strong emphasis on interactive methods. This and other illuminating findings about distance learning are the result of a collaborative research project between SCIL and Stanford Institute for International Studies (SIIS). Faculty member Chip Blacker and SCIL Co-Director Stig Hagström were the faculty leads on the evaluation project which was completed earlier this year.

The Initiative on Distance Learning (IDL) offers Stanford courses in international security to ten Russian regional universities. Three of the universities were included as part of the evaluation. Researchers from SCIL and SIIS, along with their Russian colleagues from the Distance Learning Laboratory at the Russian Academy of Education, found that of the three groups of students they studied at each of the target universities, one group demonstrated the most progress in critical thinking skills. Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the collaborative research set out to analyze the results of IDL (International Initiative on Distance Learning) courses utilizing the most promising and proven technologies and instruction.

The IDL courses included these features:

• Tutored Video Instruction
• Local Russian instructors and Stanford teaching assistants
• Instructor training with local and remote support
• New digital interactive video technology (CD-ROMS) that allowed easy, flexible access to rich course content
• Small group activities, collaborative and cooperative learning
• Computer supported collaborative learning tools to facilitate discourse across universities and with Stanford

Three groups of students served as study participants at each of the target universities:

• Students who took IDL/Stanford courses in Political Science
• Students who took regular a Political Science course (not IDL/Stanford)
• Students who did not take Political Science courses

Distance learning courses are common in many Russian universities, universities, say study collaborators Marina Buharkina and Marina Moiseeva, who visited Stanford late in the summer to meet with their fellow researchers.

“Distance learning is being developed very intensely in the last five years (in Russia) but everyone is off trying their own approaches,” said Dr. Moiseeva, who is based in Moscow and coordinated the Russian part of the project. “The level of course development can be quite poor and is carried out just to meet the most basic requirements. That is why delivering the Stanford curriculum was so important in finding out the potential value of quality distance learning.”

The project evaluated the effectiveness of distance learning courses for international students. Findings showed that those students who participated in the IDL courses with interactive support made the largest gains and showed the most improvement in their critical thinking skills. A key factor was the inclusion of collaborative, small-group activities, active communication among all the participants and extensive use of different sources of information, including the Internet.

These research findings confirm the need to integrate face-to-face contact between students and their instructor locally, and the need to offer ongoing support to the local instructors through training workshops. Understanding the local educational system by working closely with local teachers as was done in the Russian study, also contributes greatly to the success of any international or cross-cultural distance learning program and is vital to overcoming cultural and language differences.

“We will try to publish this data with our comments and ideas for the future,” said Dr. Marina Buharkina, who evaluated the student interviews to help collect data in Russia. “We want universities to learn from and use what we found out in the U.S. and in Russia. We will participate in as many conferences as our budget allows so that we can share these experiences.”

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