1st February 2022
Globethics.net Academy was proud to celebrate the Closing Ceremony for Autumn Semester 2021 last Friday 28 January 2022, orchestrated by Amélé Ekué, Globethics.net Academic Dean, and Lidia Sloutskovski, Academic Office Manager. Globethics.net staff joined our esteemed instructors and students in an online event to congratulate participants on their achievements, share the rich learnings from each course, and thank all those involved.
Throughout the closing ceremony, one important aspect of the online courses became evident: the multidimensional learning that is facilitated within their structure. It is not just the course participants who learn from their instructors, but the instructors - and even the course facilitators - who reap rich learnings from the experience.
For Lidia, the engaging live sessions stood out as a highlight of this semester’s courses. Echoing Lidia’s message of thanks and congratulations, Amélé brought to light how this ceremony isn’t just a formality and celebration of achievements, but a chance to look forward, a perspective on what we can do together to make the world a better place through ethics - this, after all, is the core mission of Globethics.net. The live sessions that form such an integral part of the Academy’s courses are an opportunity for different people from around the world to converse and contextualise their learnings within the framework of their diverse backgrounds.
Reflecting those live sessions, Lidia invited Cyber Ethics course instructor Gilles Bach and Interreligious Cooperation for Peace course instructor and developer Heidi Hadsell to share their learnings from this semester alongside student Dr R Belinda from India. Belinda’s perspective on the Interreligious Cooperation for Peace course served to prove how integral active conversations are to the learning experience of that course. For her, learning how the different aspects of culture impacts peace and vice versa was put in context by her fellow learners sharing their own diverse cultural backgrounds.
Heidi agreed, underlining the unique power of cross-cultural and international learning. She also commended the candour and openness of Globethics.net Academy students, particularly in their challenging of instructors, making these courses an incredibly rewarding teaching and learning experience. Gilles added his gratefulness for the opportunity to teach a topic of ever-growing importance such as cyber ethics and to be able to share in exchange on the subject for application in so many different areas of life.
The participation of groups from United Board and Stadio Holdings in the semester’s courses was evidence not only of Globethics.net’s engagement in worldwide partnerships to promote ethics in higher education, but also of these courses being a starting point for societal transformation.
This key point was central to Executive Director Obiora Ike’s address during the ceremony: “through ethics, a better world is possible. Share with us that vision, may we together reach a better world” he encouraged.
Highlighting the direct impact that ethics education can have in real life, another student, Gyongyi Mazsu, shared how she was already putting her learnings from the Interreligious Cooperation for Peace course into practice on a mission trip, where her experience is helping her adapt to a new, very different cultural environment.
As we close one semester, Obiora reminded us, we begin another. Spring Semester 2022 brings with it plenty of opportunities for learning and for transforming the world through that learning. As well as four online courses, Globethics.net Academy has also developed a new series of Blue Table Webinars for 2022, recognising our unique value proposition as a place where people can participate in knowledge creation and exchange.
Launching last March 2021, the Blue Table Webinars began as an idea to go beyond our formal course programmes and create an even broader space for cross-cultural dialogue around ethics. This year’s webinars revolve around the question of what it means to be human, focusing on six verbs: remembering, thinking, working, eating, inventing and loving. Each webinar will be animated by speakers, partners and panellists from different countries and disciplines sharing their own perspectives on how ethics ground this question. Learn more about each Blue Table Webinar and register now.
