For the purpose of extending the international experience and organizing more effective and targeted university curricula, on May 12-13, 2018, a two-day training course was initiated by the Eurasia International University Quality Assurance Center at the Writers’ House in Tsakhkadzor, attended by the EIU faculty, staff, students and alumni.

The getaway courses were initiated and conducted by Professor Samvel Pipoyan, PhD in Biology, Chairman of the University Governing Council.

The meeting was opened and welcomed by EIU GC Chairman Samvel Pipoyan and Rector Suren Ohanyan, who highlighted the importance of the trainings for the quality of EIU academic performance and wished the participants productive team work.

Further on, Ms. Arevik Ohanyan, EIU Quality Assurance Center Head, advised the participants on the training course content, its procedure and target goals, underscoring in particular the objective that at the end of the discussions the participants should be able to choose effective teaching and learning methods in accordance with their educational targets, to design curricula with sensible workloads, to tailor assessment methods appropriate with the educational targets, to develop forming assessment tools and mixed courses applying Moodle learning content management tools.

Having acquainted with the working program, the participants were divided into teams to do practical tasks and to assess the provided subject programs as per their format.  After the discussions, the teams offered their suggestions for subject-specific curricula, ensuring interconnections between the PEP targets, the course outcomes, the teaching and learning objectives, as well as assessment methods. 

Further on, the participants were given the next task – to evaluate the developed toolkit. Having examined the introduced forming assessment tools, the teams offered improvement recommendations. The reports were followed by animated discussions.

The topic raised a number of questions from the participants which led to a lively debate. The students and the alumni, who have participated in the international exchange program, also shared their experiences and talked about the virtual system tools in European universities and made some comparisons.

The next topic on the agenda was “Specifics of Developing Mixed Courses” which was introduced by Ms. Arevik Ohanyan. An ensued healthy debate produced a number of recommendations.

We would like to add that the EIU getaway trainings are traditional and upon finishing their participants get certificates.