International Institute of Distance Education

In 2000 Belarussian National Technical University (BNTU) ______ the International Institute of Distance Education (IIDE BNTU). In 2001/2002 ______ year first students were admitted to the Institute. Today the Institute trains students offering them ______and study balance on a tuition fee basis in 5 specialities:

• Software engineering

• Information systems and technologies

• Data processing automation systems

• Economics and industrial management

The Institute comprises two ______: “Information Systems and Technologies”, “Informational Technologies for Management”. Branches of these departments were set up in Grodno, Molodechno and Soligorsk. The Institute trains over 1400 ______, undergraduates, postgraduates and international students are currently studying at the Institute. IIDE is planning to expand its network by opening new branches of the departments in ______. The Institute keeps offering educational ______to foreign citizens in and outside of the country both in English and Russian.

Text 3. Read and translate into Russian The Profile of the Distant Student.

Many distance-education students are older, have jobs, and families. They must coordinate the different areas of their lives which influence each other - their families, jobs, spare time, and studies. Distant students have a variety of reasons for taking courses. Some students are interested in obtaining a degree to qualify for a better job. Many take courses to broaden their education and are not really interested in completing a degree. In distance education, the learner is usually isolated. The motivational factors arising from the contact or competition with other students is absent. The student also lacks the immediate support of a teacher.

Distant students and their teachers often have little in common in terms of background and day-to-day experiences and therefore, it takes longer for student-teacher rapport to develop. Without face-to-face contact distant students may feel ill at ease with their teacher as an "individual" and uncomfortable with their learning situation. In distance education settings, technology is typically the conduit through which information and communication flow. Until the teacher and students become comfortable with the technical delivery system, communication will be inhibited.

TEXT 4. Read the short text carefully and translate it into Russian.

Tutorial system* – консультационная система (a system, mainly in universities, in which students receive guidance in academic or personal matters from tutors)

Tutorial System

The tutorial system is widely and effectively used in Oxford and Cambridge. Everu student has a tutor and as soon as you come to University you go to your tutor. The tutor plans your work, suggests the books you should read and sets work for you to do, for example an essay to write. Every week you go to the tutor’s room perhaps with two or three other students and tutor discusses with you the work that you’ve done, criticizes in detail and sets you the next week’s work.

Text 5. Read the text carefully. Write out unknown words and make up your own vocabulary. Translate the text into Russian.