Armenian Virtual College Launches Inaugural Summer 2009 Term, Extending AGBU's Mission in Armenian Education

With great enthusiasm, the AGBU Armenian Virtual College (AVC) (www.avc-agbu.org) began enrollment for its inaugural summer term on June 7, 2009 and, over the course of five days, 382 individuals registered as students to investigate this emerging institution and take a sneak peak at its sample lessons. Potential students from 35 countries, including the Faroe Islands, Luxembourg, Venezuela, and Uzbekistan, logged onto the newly launched website.

During the first summer term, sixteen multimedia courses are being offered by the online college. Most of them quickly filled beyond their intended capacity. The participants may either be regular students (eligible for 2 credits per course) or observers (non-credit learners), and the courses cover Eastern Armenian language for beginners, Western Armenian language for beginners and Ancient History of Armenia. Classes are conducted in one of six languages: Western Armenian, Eastern Armenian, English, Russian, French or Spanish.

The first ever virtual classrooms of AVC opened on June 14 and will conclude on August 7, 2009. Close to 150 enrolled students hailed from 22 countries around the globe. The new virtual classmates, spanning multiple generations (17 to 82 years of age), accessed their virtual classrooms from Shanghai to Istanbul, Cordoba to Seattle, Kiev to The Hague, Amman to Reunion Island. While familiarizing themselves with their online and offline communication tools during their orientation week, they were also fully engaged in AVC's discussion forums, where they conversed about different aspects of Armenian education and their personal backgrounds.

Addressing the new learning community, AGBU Central Board Member Yervant Zorian, the founder and chairman of AVC, stated, "It is great to observe the tremendous enthusiasm among the AVC learners within their new classrooms. Thanks to comprehensive support by AGBU, today, we are witnessing a unique moment in Armenian education." He added, "I am very pleased to see a dream come true as every single individual around the globe, if he or she so desires, is now able to obtain Armenian education, thus fulfilling the AVC motto: Armenian Education Anytime Anywhere."

"This is a major patriotic project," said Stepan Petrosyan, Deputy Minister of Diaspora of the Republic of Armenia. "Besides its educational value, it will definitely help preserve the Armenian nation. Our ministry will do its best to support this colossal and important endeavor."

AVC is fortunate to have a team of professionally trained online instructors in Armenia, who help guide their students' learning experience and are committed to communicate with them around the clock. These online instructors supplement the multimedia courses and engage with their students in all six AVC languages. They support the academic and social networking aspects of virtual learning.

In addition to weekly lessons, students started accessing multimedia study tools, assignments, quizzes, course calendars, syllabi, and drop boxes. Moreover, discussion forums, email and live chat options will provide students with the opportunities to better connect with their classmates and to forge friendships with fellow students from across the globe.

"For the past few years I've been searching all over for an Armenian language course, so you could imagine how excited I was to finally come across this opportunity," stated Van, a student enrolled in the Beginners Western Armenian course in English.

"This is a great opportunity for me to learn and revise my Armenian. My two-year-old daughter is repeating with me all the words," said Karine, from Montevideo, Uruguay, a student in the Beginners Western Armenian in Spanish course.

Expressing his appreciation, Samuel stated: "Thank you again for your existence and for allowing me to utilize and ride this marvelous tool, which has been made available to the worldwide Armenian diaspora."

"I applaud this program because I will be making a lot of friends in the cyber community," said Daniel from Cordoba, Argentina, a student in the Armenian History class.

Registration for the fall 2009 term will begin on Aug. 31 (continuing until Sept. 14) and will offer double the number of courses that are currently being offered. In addition to the same course curricula as in the summer term, the next level (part 2) of these courses will also be available for the students who completed the first parts during the summer term. Additionally, the fall term 2009 will offer a new course set on Introduction to Armenian Architecture Part 1. The nine-week-long fall courses will begin September 22, 2009.

Initiated in 2004 by AGBU's Silicon Valley Chapter, and spearheaded by Yervant Zorian, the technology for AVC has largely been developed in Armenia with the collaboration of scientists and engineers at Yerevan State University's Information Technology Center for Education and Research.

Zorian was recently honored by the Republic of Armenia's National Academy of Sciences and received the distinction of "Foreign Member" as a result of his achievements in computer engineering and microelectronics. He is the vice-president and chief scientist of Virage Logic, an IT company operating both in Armenia and the United States. He was elected to the AGBU Central Board of Directors last year during the organization's 85th General Assembly. He is also a trustee of the American University of Armenia and the chairman of AGBU Silicon Valley.