Auckland University students are now able to learn Russian thanks to a Canterbury University led course that uses video conferencing as a language teaching tool.

Using a high definition video conference link, Professor Henrietta Mondry, programme director along with tutor Dr Nataliya Oryshchuk and students at the University of Canterbury are linked with classmates from Auckland University.

“We initiated teaching Russian using this tool to meet the needs of the students,” said Professor Mondry. “Canterbury is the only university in New Zealand that allows students to major in Russian. By providing access to our Russian classes, students at other universities can further their development in the language."

Organisation wide support for effective teaching over KAREN

The idea to teach Russian over KAREN was suggested by former vice-chancellor Professor Roy Sharp, and made possible with the assistance of Canterbury’s University Centre for Teaching and Learning.

Professor Mondry took up the challenge. “I love a challenge, and testing new techniques both in my teaching and research, so it has been a great experience.”

Teaching over video conference is much more effective than teaching by correspondence, Professor Mondry said.

“When learning a language it is important to be able to see body language and the way the mouth moves when perfecting pronunciation. We pick up a lot in communication when we can see and converse with a person.”

Creating and sharing resources

An added positive of teaching this way was that it also allowed for each lecture to be recorded and a bank of archives had been built up as a teaching resource. Professor Mondry said that students were able to watch the lectures for revision.

“The University of Canterbury is a leader in this new mode of learning. It has been so successful that we have plans to expand class teaching via video conference to multiple sites in the future,” she said.

Caption: Student Selwyn Pettigrew (left) in class with tutor Dr Nataliya Oryshchuk (centre) and Professor Henrietta Mondry.

Acknowledgement: Story and image courtesy of The Chronicle, University of Canterbury.

Updated 24 September 2008