Ural Federal University: University First in Russia to Launch Guided Projects on Coursera Platform

The Ural Federal University has signed a partnership agreement with the international Coursera platform. UrFU became the first Russian university to launch a Guided Project (or managed projects) on the Coursera platform.

“Not only do we closely follow trends in the online education market, but we also create our own, launch new products, and train universities across Russia to implement and develop online learning,” said Aleksandra Kuzmina, director of UrFU’s Online Learning Development Center.

In just three months of productive work, the Online Learning Development Center team and Ural Federal University professors have created 15 practice-oriented projects, each of which will take no more than two hours to complete.

Guided Projects is a practical mini-project on a selected topic. Such courses help to gain relevant experience and bridge the gap between theory and skills required by employers. During the course, a project is created together with an instructor who will reveal the process step by step, all that is left is repetition.

Professors leading such a project are industry experts with the skills, tools, and understanding of a topic who want to share their knowledge with millions of students around the world.

“The advantage of the Guided Project is that it is a practice-oriented format. It does not take long to complete, but at the end the student always gets a result: an application created independently, a ready-made CV or the ability to work in certain programs,” says Maria Ogorodnikova, senior lecturer and author of First Meeting in Russian.