ELearning Conference in the Southern Caucasus Region
Tbilisi (GE), August 2010 - The first eLearning conference in the Caucasus region was organized by the Austrian eLearning and training consultants common sense on behalf of the German development organization InWEnt in Tbilisi. The "eLearning Caucasus Conference" was the closing event of the first phase of the successful project "Institution Building and Human Resource Development in the Southern Caucasus".
Since midyear 2009, common sense has been conducting and supporting this project is for twenty educational institutions (universities, further-education institutions, research institutions) in Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia.
Teams within these institutions were trained to design and implement eLearning pilot projects. Through strategic consultancy and training by common sense on behalf of InWEnt, the basic conditions for eLearning within the institutions were developed. The outcome of the pilot projects of the participating institutions were presented during the Conference. All of the international experts in attendance were impressed by the quality of the achievements.
With 120-130 participants, the Conference attracted a large number of visitors and offered speeches and discussions at a high level. International and regional experts discussed the challenges and possibilities of eLearning in and for the countries of the Southern Caucasus region.
In a separate workshop on the day after the conference, selected representatives of the three countries discussed the formation of a regional eLearning network and the development of national eLearning centers, again moderated by common sense.
In the run-up to the Conference, common sense conducted a three-day workshop on the topic of "Quality Assurance in eLearning". The sincere and open encounter of the participants of all three countries, beyond existing political conflicts, is one of the most important and pleasant "additional benefits" of this project and raises a spark of hope for future cooperation.