August 24th, 2015, Mykolas Romeris University Rector Assoc. Prof. Algirdas Monkevičius participated in the launch of the Global Access Asia (GAA) international online open course system, the largest online system in Asia. The ceremony was held at Dongseo University (DSU) in Busan, Korea.

MRU Vice-Rector for Education Assoc. Prof. Giedrius Viliūnas also attended the launch ceremony in Busan.

Of the almost 60 universities taking part in GAA from 17 different countries in Asia, MRU was the only European University to do so.

The online open course system marks the first time such a large-scale online course service has been established among universities in Asia.

GAA kicked off its trial service following the opening ceremony on Aug. 24th, at Dongseo University (DSU), with the goal of increasing international learning opportunities for students attending universities that take part in the Asian University Presidents Forum (AUPF).

Presidents from 20 universities, including MRU, Japan’s Josai International University, China’s Shandong University and Universiti Malaysia Perlis, participated in the event.

GAA is an online courseware platform, similar to the massive open online course service in the United States, commonly known as MOOC, which pursues unlimited participation and open access through the web. In many countries, universities and even governments use MOOC as a way to widely distribute each university’s course load.

Each participating university in GAA offers courses online, which allow students at other schools to take lectures for free and earn academic credit. The courses available include credit and noncredit courses.

Courses for credit have 15-week curriculums, and students may earn two academic credits for each course completed.

All lectures are conducted in English. .

During the trial period, 13 lectures from eight universities, including the lecture, “Understanding North Korean Culture,” provided by DSU, and “Fundamentals of Digital Communications” from Bangkok University, are available. MRU Prof. Renata Mienkowska-Norkienė will present the lecture, "Importance of Efficient Communication in Social Life."

Official service will begin in September, and the number of lectures will increase to 30 within the year.

The new online course platform was initially proposed in 2013 at the AUPF. The next year, the forum made the decision to create GAA.

Four universities, including Korea's DSU, have been involved in developing the platform. DSU takes responsibility for its management as the system’s servers are hosted by the university.

“All lectures in GAA are based on each university’s tradition and geographical nature, or have something to do with a specialized field,” said DSU President Chang Je-kuk.

“More efforts are required to distribute such high-quality content to the world.”

A news report about launch of the GAA and MRU's participation as well as info about Prof. Mienkowska's lecture, was shown Aug. 25th, 2015, in a broadcast on South Korea's MBC TV.

Lectures on offer by GAA here.

Information for MRU News adapted from an article in the "Korea Joongang Daily" by SUNG SI-YOON, NAM YOON-SEO