Siberian Federal University: Siberian Federal University presents a digital educational platform for the indigenous peoples of the North
On 18 November 2021, at The Humanitarian Dimension of Russia’s Policy for the Indigenous Small-Numbered Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East scientific and practical conference, SibFU team presented the SNOWORD digital educational platform, which was developed as part of the implementation of measures to support the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North.
The conference was a joint event of Siberian Federal University and the Russian State University for the Humanities. It summed up the preliminary results of the work of Siberian Federal University on the implementation of the state assignment aimed at providing additional measures of social support to indigenous peoples. The results presented by SibFU were approved by colleagues from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, as well as the President of the Association of Indigenous Small-Numbered Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation, Grigory Ledkov.
Ruslan Baryshev, vice-rector for Research, explained how the SNOWORD platform works: it offers online courses on pre-university training for schoolchildren and additional professional education for professionals who want to receive additional qualifications. Since the beginning of the academic year, students from the indigenous minorities from Evenkia, Chukotka, Murmansk, Taimyr, and Yamal have joined the program. Course topics are tailored to the interests of indigenous peoples, and theory and practice are based on the cases relevant to them.
“Throughout the year, the team of Siberian Federal University has been developing an educational resource that is relevant for indigenous peoples. This conference is a summing up of the results of a great deal of work. It is important for us to hear the opinion not only from educators, but also from colleagues from the Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East, who represent the interests of our target audience. What we have heard confirms that the resource can potentially be in demand, however, thanks to the discussion, we also saw what the platform lacks, which we will focus on in the next stage of work. So, we plan to intensify cooperation with the Association and update the content of the courses,” noted the vice–rector.