Throughout 2023, the team of the Graduate School of Management of St. Petersburg State University tested dozens of Russian video conferencing services as part of the import substitution program for hybrid learning. Testing has shown that there is not a single ready-made Russian service on the market that would allow the implementation of classes in hybrid classrooms for interactive classes created according to a business school project. GSOM SPbU together with MTS Link (formerly Webinar) have developed, tested and will implement their own unique edtech solution for hybrid classrooms.

 GSOM SPbU has developed and is developing the concept of a hybrid classroom for interactive classes, which allows you to simultaneously train online and offline students. Such hybrid classrooms have been deployed on the Mikhailovskaya Dacha campus of GSOM SPbU. Leading Russian universities are also choosing hybrid classrooms based on the GSOM SPbU model.

 

The concept of the Graduate School of Management of St. Petersburg State University formed the basis of a new hybrid classroom at the School of Economics and Management of the Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU). The opening of a modern multimedia audience, created with the support of VTB, took place as part of the Eastern Economic Forum. You can read more about this in the material.

 

The specific requirements of GSOM SPbU for videoconferencing for a hybrid classroom are determined by the need to separate and combine video streams from the videoconferencing terminal in accordance with the methodological scenarios of the teacher’s work programmed in the hybrid classroom.

 MTS Link (formerly Webinar) has become a partner of the Business School in developing the architecture of a hybrid audience and import substitution of a key component. For several months, the joint technical team of MTS Link and GSOM SPbU has been finalizing the video conferencing service software for working in a hybrid classroom.

 Since September 2023, the developed solution has been used in the standard configuration of the hybrid classroom at GSOM SPbU for interaction with online participants. The platform for testing the solution was the Far Eastern Federal University.

 

Yuri Ekimov, IT Director, GSOM SPbU

 “As part of interaction with MTS Link, joint project work was launched to adapt the cloud platform to the tasks of hybrid learning. The platform now supports specially designed hybrid audience functionality. In particular, a version of the MTS Link application has appeared for the video conferencing terminal in hybrid classrooms. We continue to refine the solution and test new features.”

  

MTS Link replaced Microsoft Teams and became the main component of hybrid classrooms for interactive classes without losing key functions, allowing students to continue to receive a high-quality educational experience.

 

“According to the report of the National Research University Higher School of Economics “World Trends in Education in the Russian Context,” hybrid learning is the number one trend according to Russian innovators in the field of education. Technologies for hybrid communications make classes equally effective for both face-to-face and online students; The accessibility of education in the regions is increasing, and the opportunities for interuniversity and interregional cooperation are expanding. GSOM SPbU and I have implemented a promising project, which we now plan to develop and scale. We hope that our solution will organically fit into the educational process in a variety of educational institutions,” notes Tatyana Fedotova, director of work with educational organizations at MTS Link.

 

 In 2024, all hybrid classrooms for interactive classes at GSOM SPbU will be adapted to work with MTS Link.

Cooperation with MTS Link is a continuation of the successful experience of joint work between GSOM SPbU and Russian technology companies on import substitution of digital solutions for education. In 2022, the team of the Center for Teaching Excellence at GSOM SPbU and the Rosatom State Corporation adapted the Russian online survey service “My Voice” for educational purposes. Read more >>