HETL Note: Dr. Olga Kovbasyuk, President of the International HETL Association, provides a synopsis of the major HETL activities and accomplishments for 2011. Dr. Kovbasyuk highlights the importance of collaboration and networking in a globalized world, and why it is important for HETL to continue to “pursue a supportive and inclusive policy that connects educators from around the world.”
Bio: Professor Olga Kovbasyuk, Ph.D., is Professor and Associate Dean for International Relations at the Khabarovsk State Academy of Economics and Law in the Russian Federation. She is the founder of the Far East Russia Global Learning Center. In 2008, she founded a global learning center in conjunction with the 3 leading universities in Russia and the USA aimed at integrating global learning into the curriculum. Her international experience includes Fulbright International Exchange of Scholars Program at the California State University, Sacramento, USA (2004-2005), and DAAD Academic Research Program, Germany (2009); she has worked in more than 15 countries as a manager of academic exchange programs and as a consultant on managing cultural diversity for business companies (Alliance, Shell, Rostelecom). She has delivered over 70 presentations and publications in the fields of intercultural education and management.
Patrick Blessinger and Krassie Petrova
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2011: A Year of Global Collaboration and Growth
Olga Kovbasyuk
President, International HETL Association
The year 2011 is nearing its end….
What did it bring to all of us in HETL?
What are the achievements we can be proud of?
What do we dream of as we approach the New Year?
HETL started out as a grass-roots effort to improve teaching and learning in higher education and, in 2011, we quickly grew into one of the largest and most diverse international associations in the world, comprising over 10,000 educator-members of the HETL community from over 130 countries and from every academic discipline, function and level in higher education. We are a global association of educators by educators for educators.
Diversity, integrity, collegiality and inclusiveness constitute the core values of our association, which are so important in a rapidly changing globalized world. The HETL Executive Committee, with its Head Executive Director Patrick Blessinger, performed as a committed group of truly dedicated leaders, responsible for ensuring HETL fulfills its values, mission and vision.
We are now a certified non-profit organization, which allows us to provide more opportunities to advance the scholarship and practice of teaching and learning in the world community.
We expanded our resources…
We launched the HETL Portal and have been constantly refining and expanding its features. We publish incrementally the online International HETL Review, for which special thanks go to Krassie Petrova, our Editor-in-Chief, the dedicated team of editors and reviewers, and the growing number of contributors, among them distinguished scholars from every continent. The first annual volume of the Review will be published in January of 2012.
We launched Portal 2.0 in September 2011 with advanced organization of information, which has enabled us to view the portal in different languages and to submit articles to the International HETL Review in a more efficient way.
We provide an international forum for teachers, scholars, managers, administrators, librarians, counselors, technologists, and publishers from all over the world. There are more than 1,000 people now following us on Facebook and Twitter.
We will publish (Routledge) a book about Meaning-Centered Education with 13 scholars from different countries contributing their chapters on the theory and practice of a meaning-centered approach to higher education.
HETL members contributed a book chapter that will be available in December 2011: Zeine, R., Boglarsky, C.A., Blessinger, P., and Hamlet, M.T. (2011) Organizational Culture in Higher Education Institutions. Chapter 3 in Kazeroony, H. (Ed.), The Strategic Management of Higher Education Institutions. Business Expert Press.
We collaborate with educational institutions on research projects such as Organizational Culture, Organizational Effectiveness, and Student Research Maturation. HETL research projects are under the leadership of our Director of Research Dr. Rana Zeine.
We participate and collaborate with international organizations and conferences. In this photo you can see Dr. Cyndy Woods-Wilson, one of our HETL board members and our digital media manager, who presented a poster about HETL at the CAB III conference in Arizona, USA. The focus of the CAB III conference this year was on interprofessional collaboration which is one of the most important focal points of HETL.
We want to go further, in accordance with our mission and vision, in the next year: discuss and network, collaborate and partner, advise and consult, generate new resources in order to improve educational outcomes, and advance the scholarship and practice of teaching and learning through our discussion boards, our research projects, international meetings and seminars, and through our portal and The International HETL Review.
We will continue to pursue a supportive and inclusive policy that connects educators from around the world. To that end, we are sponsoring the free Edcamp Santiago conference in Chile to be held in January 2012. We will be organizing webinars, meetings and conferences such as an HETL Panel within a Mini Bakhtinian Conference in March 2012 at the University of Delaware.
We cordially thank all of you, who work with us and believe in our mission. You are a group of creative and innovative educators and we value your active participation in HETL.
We look forward to our next even more fruitful year together!
Wishing all of you warmth in heart and soul, joy and peace in your families, and a Happy New Year!
Olga Kovbasyuk
President, HETL Association
