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Diaspora Armenian Language Teachers Introduced To AVC 07/19/2010
On July 19, 2010 Armenian Virtual College hosted 70 teachers of the Armenian language from the Diaspora, who were visiting Armenia in the framework of the Teachers Retraining Program organized by the Armenian Ministry of Education and Science and Yerevan State Pedagogical University. The meeting took place in the premises of AGBU Armenia and lasted for about 2 hours. AGBU Armenian Representation Director, Mr. Ashot Ghazarian, greeted the teachers and presented to them the idea behind the Armenian Virtual College and stated that “AVC’s first and foremost goal is to deliver Armenian education to every person, who has the desire to learn, no matter where.” He passed on the word to the Academic Director of AVC, Dr. Hasmik Khalapyan, who gave a detailed presentation about the academic experience of the college. After this, two AVC online instructors, Ms. Arpine Tavakalyan and Ms. Maral Levonian, presented sample online lessons for beginners and advanced students, in order for the Diaspora teachers to have better idea on how they could leverage this educational institution in their communities. In her presentation, Dr. Khalapyan spoke about the hybrid education method (a blend of traditional and online education) that the Armenian Virtual College offers to Diaspora schools. This was successfully realized with the Ohanessian School in Sharjah (UAE) last year. Dr. Khalapyan also mentioned that AVC’s offered courses could serve as a supplementary material for teachers to make the classes much more interesting for today’s computer savvy students. Varduhi Piliposian-Garakizlian, a teacher from the Ohanessian School, personally testified to the effectiveness of the hybrid education method used in her school, and thanking AVC for the experience. She also announced that the Ohanessian School intends to expand the program for other classes. Mr. Ghazarian’s mentioning of a plan to develop an online portal for teacher training was met with great excitement. The meeting was concluded with a discussion of several questions raised by the audience. The questions that interested our Diaspora teachers covered a wide range aspects, from new courses that AVC plans to offer soon, up to the accreditation of AVC. The meeting ended with great satisfaction and interest to leverage this tremendous educational resource.