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Joint Study Programme for Mechanical Engineering in Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgystan is becoming an international knowledge hub in the region. The Central Asian republic has developed itself into a regional and international center of higher education, according to an assessment of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). The country’s lack of considerable natural and industrial resources has forced political leaders to lay the groundwork for higher education to become an economic strength of the country.
Education is highly valued amongst the Kyrgyzian population. Thus enrolment rates have increased in recent years: there are currently about 200,000 students at 46 national universities in the country which has five million inhabitants. Russia, Turkey and the USA have been involved in the foundation of new universities in the country and numerous higher education co-operations were initiated over the last years.
The German-Kyrgyzian faculty for mechanical and electrical engineering is one of them. The project, which was initiated in 2004, will help to establish a German-language based study programme in sync with the Bologna process. The programme is supported by DAAD.
Current Situation
The programme started with fifty students in September 2004 and another fifty are enrolled every year. TFH professors regularly travel to Bishkek for brief lecture stays. Kyrgyz assistant professors have come to Berlin to get training in language, specialised knowledge and didactics.
“The graduates will be especially interesting for German companies planning to invest in the fast-developing Kyrgyzstan economy”, says Michael Müller, who leads the production of online content for the project. “Students graduate with a Kyrgyzian diploma, but we are currently preparing a Master’s programme as well.”
The content as well as the teaching and studying concepts of the German engineering education system form the basis of the Bachelor’s programme. Some of the courses are held in German, but Müller has discovered that while the German-language competence of the students has risen, the linguistic performance of the teachers has remained behind expectations.
To tackle this problem, blended learning concepts were discussed. The training courses in Bishkek will now be supported by online study modules that were partly designed for study programmes at the TFH.
Perspective
Müller is optimistic that with the introduction of new teaching and studying materials at the KGTU, the lack of German-speaking teachers will be compensated for. “This could also add practical media competence to the education of engineers”, he says. E-Learning and the use of a Learning Management Systems (LMS) will influence all other study courses and students in an effective way, the project managers are convinced.
Meanwhile, the set up of an e-learning competence center similar to the laboratory of online learning at the TFH is moving closer to becoming a reality. The production and exchange of multimedia-based and didactically prepared study materials has already been planned. Once financial and technical impediments are met, even further offerings, such as shared lectures, virtual projects and teamwork, are conceivable.
E-Learning at the TFH
The University of Applied Science in Berlin is member of the national university network “Virtuelle Fachhochschule”. The organisation of the e-learning courses, and the production of online modules form part of the duties of the laboratory for online learning, founded in 2003.
At the TFH, the LMS Moodle is used to organise online lessons and increasingly also for traditional lessons. About 7,000 users are currently registered in the TFH Berlin’s Moodle system and it can be assumed that the majority of the school’s 9,000 students appreciate this service. For students in the online courses of study, the daily use of the LMS has become indispensable routine since 2002.
The use of video conferencing was tested for the online courses in 2005, and a system for collaboration and communication has been in use since 2006.
