ISTANBUL (Agos) — Yervand Zoryan, the founder and the director of Armenian Virtual College (AVC), which is sponsored by Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU), visited Istanbul on Monday. Zoryan came together with the representatives of the Armenian schools in Istanbul and told the opportunities provided by the virtual college and the accomplishments it gained in a couple of years.
Yervand Zoryan founded Armenian Virtual College with the purpose of providing a solution for the problems of conserving the language and culture in the places where there are no Armenian schools. Launched in Armenia and other countries with dense Armenian population, this project offers virtual education in Armenian, Armenian culture and history and chess.
The students of the virtual college, who receive education in virtual classrooms, have the chance to come together with other students and discuss what they have learned. In this way, this project serves as a bridge between the various communities of Diaspora. Moreover, the college has an open e-book archive.
In the virtual college, there are programs for the ones who want to learn Western and Eastern Armenian and the courses can be followed in English, Russian, Spanish, French and Turkish. With this feature, AVC succeeded in reaching students all over the world in a short time. The education in Turkish is a great opportunity for Armenians in Turkey, who cannot go to Armenian schools, but want to learn Armenian.
Having students from 75 countries, AVC prepared multimedia e-books that are titled “Armenian Plateau” and “Explore Erivan”. These books can be downloaded to mobile devices for free. A course in AVC costs 200 dollars. There are scholarships available for the students with financial difficulties and the successful students can take other courses for free.
