The Division of the Understanding Korea Project at the Center for International Affairs of the Academy of Korean Studies and the Russian Academy of Education hosted an online textbook seminar for two days October 27-28. Following last year's seminar, there were five presenters from the Russian side: Svetlana V. Ivanova, head of the UNESCO Chair on Global Education at the Institute for Strategy of Education Development of the Russian Academy of Education under the Russian Ministry of Education; Irina M. Elkina, Assistant Director of International Affairs; Olga A. Francuzova, Assistant Director of the Humanities and Social Science Institute; Irina M. Osmolovskaya, Director of the Education Theory and Philosophy Institute; and Yulia Yu. Pustylnik, Head of the Centre for Management of Innovative Projects and Intellectual Property. More than 30 officials of the Institute for Strategy of Education Development participated in the seminar online. 

The seminar was conducted online to abide by the "social distancing" guidelines. On the first day, the Russian participants and Korean speakers, who included researchers at the Division of Understanding Korea Project, discussed issues related to humanistic education in non-face-to-face education.

On the second day, the participants discussed the two countries’ future teaching methods under expanding digital education and issues related to the intellectual property right of online education materials.

The Russian Institute for Strategy of Education Development and the AKS agreed to cooperate with each other in working out measures to further invigorate educational, academic exchanges in the future. The two sides also shared the view that the role of education experts is important for children and that education officials of the two countries should make many efforts in that context.

Participants from the Russian Institute for Strategy of Education Development expressed strong interest in Korea's humanistic education and AI education under online education and non-face-to-face education. They made in-depth discussions on the strategy to develop online platforms for future education in the two countries.

They also shared the view that humanistic education and sustainable education are important for the future education and emphasized that the problems with humanism that can come up in the era of digital transformation are not limited to a single country and that the whole world should make united efforts to deal with them.

The Russian and Korean education experts who participated in the online seminar discussed the situation under which online education has become a norm, and the merits and demerits of non-person-to-person education. While, expressing concerns about the diversification of education using various digital platforms and they shared the view that they need to make humanistic preparations. They expressed the hope that they visit each other’s countries to discuss various experiences and ways to cooperate for future education between the two countries when the COVID-19 pandemic dies out.