Enri Hide, PhD (ALBANIA) Lecturer of International Relations and Security

1. THE CHALLENGES OF E-LEARNING FOR ALBANIAN SOCIAL SCIENCES: THE CASE OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE COURSES IN UNIVERSITY EDUCATION Enri Hide, PhD (ALBANIA) Lecturer of International Relations and Security European University of Tirana E-mail: enri.hide@uet.edu.al

2. Objective • This paper will analyze the challenges of e-learning in Albanian social sciences. • It will focus specifically in the international relations and political science curricular programs and courses, in order to build a new dimension of teaching and learning in a rapidly developing country with a very dynamic education process.

3. Argumentation • In the first part we will analyze the causes of transition and democratic transformation that Albania has entered since the beginning of the ’90s with the consolidation of its democratic institutions. • As with all other processes and structures, these changes embraced nearly all the field of education, with deep changes, reforms and transformations of an old educational system not corresponding to the new era of modernity, democracy and market economy.

4. Argumentation • The second part of the paper will deal more in depth with the changes in educational legislation in general and more concretely with the legislative and structural changes in the higher education. • It will focus its attention to the reforms that accompanied the last years, especially since the application of Bologna process and the outburst of private higher education, with the foundation of a large number of private universities and higher education institutions. • It will seek to explore some of the main challenges of such a system, as well as to highlight some of the opportunities it presents for students and teachers alike.

5. Argumentation • One of the main challenges that the paper will address in this section is how to make sure the quality in front of the substantial increase of students’ number at all levels of studies (BA, MA and Doctoral). • In this respect, the Bologna process that was the benchmark of all these changes, served as a point of reference and a guide for all institutions of higher or university education in order to guarantee the quality of their studies and to integrate research with teaching and learning.

6. Argumentation • The third part of this paper will try to elaborate some more unexplored issues of the higher education of the last years, unaddressed until now in Albania. One of them is the case of introducing the e-learning method in a university education system until now accustomed only to the full-time and part-time university diplomas. In this part the paper explores the challenges and opportunities of applying e-learning in Albania. It takes into consideration the positive and negative aspects of such a system, specifically for the case of Albania. This is closely connected to the way e-learning works and the innovation in education, both in teaching methods and in learning opportunities.

7. Conclusions • Finally the paper will conclude in recommendations of a legislative and academic nature, for universities and policymakers alike. • Highlighting the advantages this kind of education has, especially in a developing society such as Albania, the modernization it brings for students and teachers alike, and the way it can develop outside the formal borders, for the Albanian communities throughout the world, without negatively affecting the teaching and learning quality, thus contributing for the creation of a new generation of well-educated Albanians.