Tomsk State University has opened AKTRU rooms for hybrid education. AKTRU provides equal opportunities for students both online and offline to receive the information without burdening the teacher. The system was created on the initiative of the University Consortium of Big Data Researchers that in turn was initiated by TSU.
“AKTRU is a unique system and has no equivalent in Russia or on the global market. In 2020, TSU tested the system and became the first university to create a space for hybrid education. During a pandemic it allows the university to ensure a high quality of education,” said Eduard Galazhinsky, TSU Rector.
The unique network of rooms was opened during the visit of Ivan Fedotov, director of the Association of the Innovative Regions of Russia, and crowned the meeting on modern tools for ensuring the quality of education for innovative regions of Russia, where TSU representatives showcased their inventions. Currently, there are 45 AKTRU rooms in TSU, where 2,500 thousand students can study offline and 4,500 students can study online simultaneously.
“With AKTRU, students at home can see everything that is happening in the lecture hall and on the whiteboard. All lectures are recorded and uploaded on cloud storage automatically in a good resolution. The system is flexible and allows using most of the university’s equipment,” said Artyom Feschenko, head of the Research and Education Laboratory of Computers Aid in Teaching at TSU Institute of Distance Education.
The program can find all video and text materials on the chosen topic and start lectures from the exact moment the word is mentioned. The student can work faster with individual files and cover more sources of information.
In January 2022, 20 universities – members of the University Consortium of Big Data Researchers – declared that they plan to integrate this system in their universities. Ivan Fedotov noted the need for such lecture halls.
“Systems like AKTRU are the answer to one of the global challenges that education faces, namely how to save the quality of education during distance learning. We do this so that students can receive information whenever they are, notwithstanding the pandemic or other limitations. That is why we will be glad to assist any university that would like to incorporate AKTRU systems into their infrastructure,” said Ivan Fedotov.
Opening AKTRU lecture halls is only one of the steps TSU is taking to create the ideal infrastructure for education at TSU. By the beginning of the semester, TSU will open an IT hall, dormitories No. 3 and 7 have already opened computer classrooms, Parus dormitory offers its residents a co-working space #PixelPlace, and TSU Research Library now has 70 new computers in its 24/7 Information Center.