Registration for popular online e-governance course extended

More than 260 participants from Estonia and 20 foreign countries have registered to the online course “Diffusion and Impact of Internet Voting” offered by the UT Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies. Due to a high demand and large interest in the online course, the registration deadline has been extended to 20th of November. 
One of the course organizers, Senior Research Fellow in Technology Studies, Kristjan Vassil, says that they are pleased to have such a large number of participants. “Estonia is an e-state and it is important to know how the internet voting system works and how it impacts our country in order to get a better grasp of the current governmental system.”    
The course is intended for non-ICT students and working professionals, who study or work in Estonia and are interested in broadening their knowledge about the e-government in general, and internet voting, in particular. Applicants with ICT background are also welcome to participate in the course. The MOOC is unique in employing a wealth of empirical evidence - including 10 years of survey data on e-voting, actual log data on voting sessions and aggregate election data - to demonstrate the development and usage of internet voting.
According to Merilen Sõrmus, Project Manager of the Department of State Information Systems of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, “the course does not only give an excellent opportunity to complement one’s knowledge of e-governance, but also teaches them to analyse the impact of online elections on societal processes. Working professionals who have passed the course will be able to associate the internet voting topics with their own fields of activity”.
The course is comprised of eight issue-specific weekly modules, during which students are required to watch video lectures, read study material and complete the quizzes. The course is adopted to the participants’ needs and offers them the possibility to choose the speed of completing the quizzes, which can be done either on a weekly or gradual basis. 
The course has already attracted more than 260 participants from all around Estonia (including students from Tartu, Tallinn, Narva, Parnu; representatives from governmental organisations, local municipalities, NGOs and education organisations) as well as international participants from around the world, including the US, Russia, Germany, India and Kazakhstan.
The course continues until 11 December and participants who successfully pass the MOOC will receive the University of Tartu certificate.
Registration to the free English-taught online course is available at: https://goo.gl/5VVDan. 
The course introductory video can be access at: https://youtu.be/m6QySsY6koU 
The MOOC is developed with the aid of the European Union Social Fund via the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications.
Additional information: 
Anna Beitane
Project Manager of UT Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies