Academic recognition from the Hebrew University

In the previous post I wrote about our vision and how we founded eTeacher. In those early days, when things didn’t always go as we expected, we naturally turned to our imagination and fantasized about how far we could possibly go with distance learning. I remember myself driving home and imagining an online school teaching Chinese, where the teachers are located in Beijing and the students are located in the US or Europe. I also remember myself thinking of the remote possibility of our company getting recognition from a large, well-known University that will provide academic accreditation to our courses. Some of these dreams have come true, some have not and some never will.

A month ago we signed an agreement with the Hebrew University in Jerusalem under which our Biblical Hebrew courses will be recognized by the Hebrew University. According to the agreement we will open separate classes with academic requirements (attendance, paper submissions and a final exam). Students that pass the course will receive 4 academic credit points from the Hebrew University.

So, 10 years of hard work have passed and we have reached yet another significant stepping stone; academic recognition from a leading international institution.

There is no doubt that academic recognition is a big honor for eTeacher, received following a professional and scrupulous examination that included: assessment of the content, the teaching faculty, professional management and teaching methods. But it is also a small stepping stone in the history of the Israeli academic world; the Hebrew University, the oldest and most prestigious academic institution in Israel, with generations of graduates that have taken classes in its campuses, is initiating its very first distance learning program, and it is doing it with eTeacher!

Distance learning opens a fantastic window of opportunity to the academic world. If I was a president of a big university I would try to figure out how to take advantage of today’s technology, the internet and methodologies that have been developed to open the gates of the university to students from all around the globe. Every university has its academic assets, those fields that it specializes in, sometimes drawing students from far away countries to study these fields. These are the fields that should be adapted to online learning.

The Hebrew University in Jerusalem excels in many fields. But it obviously has a clear international academic advantage in fields such as Bible studies, Israeli studies (history, archeology) and Judaism. Every head of a large university can identify parallel fields of expertise in his university.

So now the question is how to recruit students and make money from it. Do we cooperate with a private company, do we develop the distance learning ability in-house, do we use synchronous tools (like the ones we use in eTeacher) or a-synchronous like most.

Obviously my advice would be – use the experts! Online learning has become a profession. Collaboration with experienced players can save the university precious time and money. In this field it’s easy to make mistakes and to spend a lot of money without seeing the expected results.

And if anyone wants my advice or assistance, my email is available and I would be happy to help.

Read more at Yahoo News

Yariv@eteachergroup.com