COPIUS (Community of Practice in Uralic Studies) is an innovative international learning community for teachers and students of Uralic (Finno-Ugric) studies. The central insight is that studying a small and research-oriented discipline, beyond the mere acquisition of knowledge and skills, requires networking and identity-building, i.e. becoming a member of a community. Therefore, the present project aims to establish a virtual, international community of practice where e-learning is combined with teaching activities utilizing student and staff mobility. The main objective of the strategic partnership COPIUS is to create a sustainable international framework for a community of practice in Uralic studies. This resource pooling, by way of both virtual and real-life communication, will enable the sharing of both explicit and tacit knowledge. In COPIUS we aim to structure knowledge in an openly accessible und sustainable manner, with the help of new technologies as online educational resources. These resources will become accessible beyond physical, geographical, institutional or social boundaries, and beyond the customary circle of students, thus also reaching adult learners and early stage researchers. Our goal in the present project is therefore to create an environment leading to a community of practice where ideas and methods are easily shared, where we learn from each other, and where we can acquire the ideas and tools to redraw the boundaries between teaching and research. It integrates students into the research community from early on, and enables a multidimensional information flow for developing teaching resources. COPIUS consists of nine institutes at European universities where Uralic studies are taught: Budapest, Hamburg, Helsinki, Munich, Szeged, Tartu, Turku, Uppsala, and Vienna. Three associate partners are also involved: (i) the ‘Higher Education in Transition’ research group in Tampere, Finland, specialists in the methodologies of higher education, will monitor the quality of the project; (ii) professor Mats Deutschmann of Örebro University, leader of a successful Virtual Community of Practice, will act as a resource for both technical and pedagogic principles necessary for realizing the virtual learning platform; and (iii) the Finno-Ugrian Society, which as a publisher of high-quality Uralic publications, will function as an impartial guarantor of the quality of the project’s intellectual outputs. COPIUS will organize blended learning events for higher education students consisting of e-learning followed by summer workshops; this includes both language courses and general courses on specific topics related to Uralic studies. In addition, COPIUS will also organize intensive programmes of annual winter schools, where minor Uralic languages are taught and workshops and guest lectures on general and Uralic linguistics and related disciplines are held. The innovativeness and added value of the COPIUS project reside both in its social organization and its technological realization. It utilizes both social methodologies and methodologies for content-creating and sharing, summarized in the following principles: 1) linking students, teachers and researchers from different universities and various levels, through face-to-face interaction and through virtual means; 2) using technical tools for communication across institutional boundaries and employing them in content-creating together; 3) providing a sustainable learning platform for sharing knowledge during the course of the project and beyond; 4) disseminating tangible and intangible project outcomes via print media and social media. The overarching outcome of the project will be the emergence of a sustainable community of practice in the study, teaching and research of Uralic languages and cultures. This will be achieved by the following steps: 1) creating an expandable learning platform with three different types of modules: theoretical, practical, and language learning. The platform can be used for knowledge-sharing and as a virtual networking device both within and beyond the e-learning courses; 2) organizing winter schools and summer workshops that create and maintain an inter-university community; 3) developing, testing and implementing flexible and modular course design; 4) improving teaching through transfer of latest research outputs back into course design and developing courses with direct involvement of students in the development of teaching courses and in research projects, thus promoting creativity and ensuring the mutual reinforcement between teaching and research. The most important results of the project will thus be both tangible and intangible, i.e. a new infrastructure and new ways of cooperation in learning, teaching and research. COPIUS can therefore also function as an adoptable model for inter-university community creation, especially for low-volume disciplines.
COPIUS (Community of Practice in Uralic Studies) was a strategic partnership consisting of nine institutes at European universities where Uralic (Finno-Ugric) studies are taught: Budapest, Hamburg, Helsinki, Munich, Szeged, Tartu, Turku, Uppsala, and Vienna. It was conceived as an innovative international learning community for students and teachers of Uralic studies. The central motivation behind the undertaking was that a small and research-oriented discipline requires of its students not only the mere acquisition of knowledge and skills, but also networking and identity-building, i.e. for students to become members of a community with a set of mores and practices. Therefore, the project at hand aimed to transform existing mostly bilateral partnerships into a virtual, international multilateral community of practice where e-learning is combined with teaching activities involving student and staff mobility. The main objective of the strategic partnership COPIUS was to create a sustainable international framework for a community of practice in Uralic studies. This was primarily realized through resource pooling: sharing of resources used internally by the different partner institutions, sharing of ideas, tools, and methods, and subsequently processing and editing them into a format making them maximally usable for both members of our consortium and a wider public, and publishing them online. In addition, a main goal of our project was to integrate students into the research community from early on. This facilitated a redrawing of the boundaries of our discipline by making it visible to those outside of the traditional rigid academic structures within which our discipline has historically existed. This resource pooling, by way of both virtual and real-life communication, enabled and continues to enable, thanks to the intellectual outputs created in the project and being maintained by our partners at the University of Vienna (at www.copius.eu), the sharing of both explicit and tacit knowledge. In COPIUS we aimed to structure knowledge in an openly accessible (both as regards licensing, and approachability with regard to language usage, terminology) and sustainable manner, using new technologies to create online educational resources. These resources are now accessible over the Internet beyond physical, geographical, institutional or social boundaries, and beyond the customary circle of students. They thus can and are also reaching adult learners and early-stage researchers. The broadened exposure of our discipline was especially advantageous for scholars from neighbouring disciplines (e.g. Turkology) and from countries in which Uralic studies have historically lacked a strong academic standing (e.g. Poland, Japan). Our approach to teaching had three primary constituents in COPIUS: (1) in-person teaching, (2) online teaching, (3) the creation of online teaching materials. These three constituents were interdependent: the in-person and online teaching events served both as a launch platform for the community of practice that was the core motivation behind our project, and as a venue to develop our online teaching resources. The ongoing availability of our intellectual outputs guarantees their sustainability and will allow scholars from a wide range of disciplines and backgrounds to profit from our activities, and to participate in teaching events asynchronously. Our initial plan was to carry out three in-person winter schools and three hybrid courses in which an online course on a particular topic is followed by a week-long summer workshop. The winter schools were intensive programmes where minor Uralic languages were taught and workshops as well as guest lectures on general and Uralic linguistics and related disciplines were held; they also included colloquia where graduate and doctoral students could present results of their research to an international team of experts and peers. The hybrid courses were blended learning events for higher education students consisting of e-learning followed by summer workshops; this included both language courses and general courses on specific topics related to Uralic studies. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, one winter school and two summer workshops had to be transformed into online-only teaching events, resulting in a considerably larger share of online teaching than in-person teaching. Nevertheless, we managed to carry out all planned teaching events and convey all intended subject matters. An overview of the specific topics covered in the individual teaching events can be found on our website www.copius.eu. The most important results of the project are both tangible and intangible, i.e. a new infrastructure in the form of our website and the resources it hosts as well as new ways of cooperation in learning, teaching and research. COPIUS can therefore also function as an adoptable model for inter-university community creation, especially for low-volume disciplines.