The guidelines & FAQ for offering elective courses

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General information about elective courses

What is an elective course? An elective is a course chosen by students based on their interest.

There are two types of electives: technical and humanities. Some of the electives we have offered during the last couple of years are:

What should be the content of an elective course? The content and topics can be suggested by the instructor who is delivering the course. If you are hesitating as to what exactly to offer we can help you out.

Generally speaking, we welcome industry-related subjects. The main criteria are two:

  1. subjects have to be suitable for students given their background;
  2. subjects must not repeat the core subjects that students take during their degree. (See: core subjects by each year BSc & MS)

Some subjects of interest to our students could be:

  1. Industrial Programming in Java;
  2. Backend Development with Kotlin;
  3. Advanced С++: New Language Concepts, Features and Mechanisms;
  4. UX/UI design;
  5. Back-end development with Python.

Example subjects we are already delivering:

  1. Introduction to Quantum Programming;
  2. Front-end Web Development;
  3. Programming in Haskell;
  4. Introduction to Game Development;
  5. iOS Development with Swift;
  6. Cross-platform Mobile Development with Flutter.

How many classes/teaching hours does a course take?

A technical elective course is 40 academic hours of teaching, i.e. 20 classes (90 minutes each). These 20 classes can be a mix of lectures and labs, i.e. theory and practice, or any other contact format (masterclasses, presentations, training, …). In addition to that the students are expected to have 140 academic hours for self-studying work (homeworks, projects, assignments, reading, etc) and the exam including preparation.

A humanities elective is 30 academic hours of teaching (lectures and labs) and extra 42 academic hours for a student’s self-study (homeworks, projects, assignments, reading, etc).


What is the language of teaching?

English.

Who are the students?

- How large are the groups of students?

Number of students at an elective course is between 6 and 30. Also, the instructor can indicate the optimal number of students for their course.

- What is their background?

You can familiarize yourself with their educational program and core courses here:

- Where can I get the lists of students? Normally, the exact list is only known a few weeks prior to the start of the course.

You can contact https://t.me/Viktoria_Mostiakova to get the list of students and their contact details.

Offering a course

How can I propose an elective?

To propose an elective, you need to provide the following information about the course:

  1. The title;
  2. A short description;
  3. Prerequisites needed for your course;
  4. Intended learning outcomes;
  5. The list of topics that will be covered during the course.

This is needed for students to understand the content of the course and choose the elective among others. You can also provide links to GitHub repos, some presentations, etc.


The deadline for proposing a course for the Summer term 2022 is April 10th. The deadline for proposing a course for the Fall term 2022 is June 15th.

Please send your proposals to bmp@innopolis.university Also you can message https://t.me/nurios if you have any questions.

I proposed. What’s next? How are the students going to choose?

  1. We will provide the students with the list of all proposed options.
  2. Students will vote to indicate their interests.
  3. When all votes are collected, we will notify you whether the students have chosen your elective.

My elective course is chosen by the students. What are the official procedures? Do I need to sign a contract?

- How is the decision to hire for a position on the course made? What criteria are being considered? What is going to be checked? Brief answer: you will submit a CV and some other documents, then do an interview, then deliver a lecture or lab to demonstrate your teaching skills and knowledge of the subject. If all goes well, the course is approved for delivery. Detailed procedure: Innopolis University has a standard selection process for both permanent and visiting professors arranged by the Faculty Support and Affairs department.

  1. Candidates should email a full application package as PDF files to faculty@innopolis.ru: cover letter, CV (with Scopus and Google Scholar profiles links, links for the videos of public talks or lectures, if any), research statement and teaching statement.
  2. Candidates will have a 30’ Zoom talk with senior university administrators and faculty members to discuss the course, propose ideas or clarify all the details needed.
  3. Candidates will be asked to prepare a 45' lecture/research seminar on a topic of your choice for an audience of the level of the second-year undergraduate students. The lecture can be arranged via Zoom on in Innopolis University premises. This will allow the candidates to familiarize with Innopolis university processes, as well as students and staff.

-What about the contract and the payments? In general, what does the procedure of hiring look like?

Agreement is concluded for the period of the course. Terms and conditions will be sent in advance by the Faculty Support and Affairs department.

The list of the standard required documents to prepare the contract: Passport, resident and contact details, certificate of no criminal records issued at the country of residence, bank details, work record book, ИНН, СНИЛС if available.

Please indicate the country of residence for TAX rate specification.

Payment can be arranged monthly, split in 2 parts, or arranged at the end of the course.

-Business trips, i.e. travel to Innopolis. Is it paid? Who is responsible for these questions? Innopolis University typically covers travel and other costs, related to participation in educational activities and events in Innopolis University. Details and limits are specified in the agreement.

Can accommodation be provided? If so, on which terms?

The Faculty Support and Affairs department can arrange accommodation in the university premises that is fully covered by the agreement.

For other preferences please refer to Faculty Support and Affairs department.


Organizing the course and teaching

- What are my administrative responsibilities related to the course? Do I need to provide any reports? (отчётности/документы/явки/присутствие)

  1. You should provide the syllabus of the course and submit it to Viktoria Mostyakova. Syllabus is supposed to be done in both English and Russian. If you don’t speak Russian, we can help you with the translation.
  2. Your Moodle page should be organized with respect to course syllabus (same sections, activities), it should contain relevant materials (slides, papers, references, lecture notes, repositories, …).
  3. All graded activities must be projected to Moodle with assignments, quizzes, and graded items.
  4. You should collect attendance.
  5. You must provide final grades in Moodle in 3 days after the final exam.

All Moodle related questions can be addressed to https://t.me/Mls181

- How does grading happen? Should attendance affect it (is attendance obligatory for students)? What does the examination look like? Should I provide the assignments and grade the students myself? Mostly grading is up to the instructor. The most important thing is that students must be informed how the grading will happen at the very beginning of the course. The grading should be fair and consistent.

- What is Moodle? What info should I post there? In what time frames?

https://eduwiki.innopolis.university/index.php/HowToMoodle

All Moodle related questions can be addressed to https://t.me/Mls181

- Who is responsible for organizational things such as schedule, booking rooms, and providing the equipment?

The electives schedule and rooms are managed by Viktoria, please do contact her on telegram https://t.me/Viktoria_Mostiakova or by email v.mostiakova@innopolis.ru

- What about online format? Will I have online students? Is it obligatory to attend offline if the student is present in Innopolis? How do I get a Zoom or Microsoft Teams account? How should a mixed format be organized? Who will help me with the equipment? Remote teaching guide: document https://docs.google.com/document/d/15BSpVWYbFCn-A7YWgEHPicFR9kZARrL5cV6mBTNqtrM/edit and video instruction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cyi5064KLCQ&list=PLneu1tELBieKgdGI6MXpgCQ-KwTnItYu-&index=8


Appendix: The upcoming academic terms and student audience

BSc 1st year, Summer term 2022

The audience are 1st year bachelor students, who would have completed two semesters of study and covered these programming-related subjects:

Fall Semester

  1. Introduction to Programming
  2. Computer Architecture
  3. Discrete Maths and Logic

Spring Semester

  1. Software Systems Analysis and Design
  2. Data Structures and Algorithm
  3. Theoretical Computer Science

They are expected to have a basic understanding of OOP, design patterns, algorithms, data structures, and programming in Java and C++.

Both technical and humanities electives can be offered during this term.

MS Software Engineering, 1 year, Summer 2022

The audience are 1st year master students specializing in Software Engineering. The will have completed two semesters of study and covered these subjects:

Fall Semester -

Spring Semester


Both humanities and advanced technical electives can be offered during this term.

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