Seminar on Teaching at HSE

On November, 22 International Faculty Support Unit has organized a peer-to peer workshop for international faculty members on teaching at HSE. The seminar enabled newcomers to get acquainted with specifics of the teaching process at HSE, and their more experienced colleagues had an opportunity to share their experience.

Konstantin Timofeev, administrator at Centre for the Development of Educational Environment, gave a brief overview of using the electronic Learning Management System (LMS). The participants discussed opportunities of the system for communication with students and managing the courses. Konstantin encouraged the faculty to contact LMS staff with requests for technical support individually at lms@hse.ru. 

Several International Faculty members, who have been working at HSE for more than 3 years, were invited to the Seminar as speakers: Renira Gambarato, Assistant Professor at School of Media (Faculty of Communications, Media, and Design), Christopher Brav, Assistant Professor at Faculty of Mathematics, and Joseph MacInnes, Assistant Professor at School of Psychology (Faculty of Social Sciences). They noted that most of the students have solid knowledge in the field of the studies and are good English speakers as well. The International Faculty members shared some tips based on their teaching at HSE. Firstly, when teaching a course, it can be useful to integrate recommended reading as a part of another assignment, e.g. presentation, essay, etc. Secondly, when supervising students’ term paper or thesis, it is important to understand their motivation via an interview or suggest to read 1-2 papers on the topic for the next meeting. It is also vital to set earlier deadlines for students handing in their term papers or theses, so as to have a chance to review their work and suggest corrections before the final deadline.  

Apart from that, some general issues on the educational model and knowledge assessment regulations at HSE, such as grading system, plagiarism, exam retaking procedures, etc. were discussed. The relevant regulations are always available at ifaculty.hse.ru/teaching.

It was the second peer-to-peer seminar on Teaching, and we welcome all international faculty members to the next year’s workshop.  Let us know if you would like to participate by writing to ifaculty.support@hse.ru.