Knowledge is power. Information is liberating.
Education is the premise of progress,
 in every society, in every family.
Kofi Annan, 1997

Dear Student:

Thank you for taking the course, which I am honoured to teach. Some of you might be wondering: What I will learn in this course? How does this course help me in choosing my future career? Who is this OLEKSANDR KONDRASHOV? How does he help/hinder me in the process of learning? What are his expectations of me? Is this an easy credit course or will I need to work extra hard to pass the course?

This document is designed to help students’ to answer some of these and many other questions. It is one of the supplements to the course syllabus, which I designed to facilitate our learning process.  The idea of providing some personal information, I call this education philosophy, is to help you to become informed about your instructor, his teaching, grading, research, and communication philosophy statements to facilitate your learning journey in receiving post-secondary education. Originally this document was developed to help distance learning students from the Faculty of Social Work and introduce them to the SWRK 2080 “Interpersonal Communication Skills” course as they are not able to have face to face communication with their instructor. However, I decided to use this information in every course. The improvement of interpersonal communication skills with students is a core requirement for making the overall course communication more clear and transparent.

Please note, this is a living document; It will be regularly updated. I am continually developing and looking for improvements to make the learning environment for every student, including myself, the most fruitful in building required theoretical knowledge and practice skills. Please feel free to communicate your suggestions about this document. What information is missing, what is too much? I am open to feedback, changes and encourage discussion to promote learning.