Experience of webinar program organized in Novosibirsk State University (project "Terra prehistorica. Archaeology online")

Purpose. This paper shows some results of implementing e-Learning in Novosibirsk State University. The project «Terra Prehistorica. Archaeology online» is a series of webinars offering free professional development opportunities for students, young researchers and archaeologists seeking to enhance their skills or knowledge. It is a collaborative project of the Science and educational center «New archaeology», Department of Archaeology and Ethnography (Novosibirsk State University) and the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of SB RAS. The project «Terra Prehistorica» was launched in 2015. For two years, we have arranged more than 30 lectures of famous archaeologists from around the world (Russia, France, Japan, USA, Germany, Canada, etc.). Currently the total audience counts over 500 viewers from Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Korea, United Kingdom, France, Poland, etc. This project includes lectures for students as a part of their educational program, open lectures and courses of lectures, broadcast of conferences and workshops. We use GoToWebinar for broadcasting. This is a simple and handy application that can demonstrate slideshow presentations where images are presented to the audience, and markup tools and a remote mouse pointer are used to engage the audience while the presenter discusses the slide content; live or streaming video; meeting recordings; text chat and desktop sharing where participants can view anything the presenters currently show on their screen. Such engaging events help us keep up to date on developments in archaeology and anthropology with the help of leading experts in archaeology and allied sciences. It is a good opportunity to enhance skills and knowledge base for students who chose archaeology as a specialty and for online participants. Results. We developed a project including free webinars available to anyone interested in the newest results of investigation in archaeology. The experience of implementing this project shows that such a format is effective enough to enhance skills in archaeological and multidisciplinary investigations. Conclusion. During the period of two years while implementing the project «Terra Prehistorica. Archeology online», we observe an increase in the educational level of students (BA, MA and PhD). The courses of online lectures allow drawing attention to the key problems in archaeology and ways of their solution as well as getting acquainted with the latest research and results of archaeological and multidisciplinary investigations. The accumulated experience in organizing lectures in the form of webinars facilitates the development of online course for training archaeologists at NSU.