Virtual Excursions
Custom Virtual Events for Your Classroom - Led from Abroad!
Virtual Excursions offer you the opportunity to:
- Give your students authentic experiences and direct connections to a foreign culture.
- Introduce your students to individuals abroad to share viewpoints and ideas.
We call these virtual excursions “Погуляем!” This Russian word translates as “Let’s Take a Walk!” and, in the original, is inseparable from its connotations of social interaction and exploration. “Погуляем!” virtual excusions can be held in English or Russian and are customizable to integrate with your course material. Inspire your students to be more active in their learning and better equipped to reach out to other cultures and new ideas.
Preparing your students for success
There is something about an experience being in real time that allows one to be “transported” to the place. The ability to interact with someone there and see the interactions and daily life happening around the experience, all contribute to the sense of being in a place and gaining insight that isn’t possible with just a one-way video.
We will work with you to make sure that your students’ interests and your curriculum are best served by these virtual excursions. We will send you material in advance that can help your students to enter the experience ready to “hit the ground running” and make the most of thier time and experience.
Groups are highly encouraged to interact with hosts – making comments and asking questions – as this brings the experience to life even more and truly allows for exploration by the participants.
Sample virtual excursions
Additional ideas and pricing are listed below. These can be arranged anywhere SRAS hosts programs or travel components – and often in others as well. You can see a map of these locations on our Custom Programs Abroad page. Contact us with your ideas!
Level 1 indicates a 50-60 minute experience with one peer tutor or SRAS team member. These are generally informal events that allow students to take a genuine look at a place/event from the perspective of someone abroad who is eager to share his/her opinion and interact with your students.
Level 1 experiences run about $50.
Examples include:
- Walk around Red Square
- Walk along Nevsky or other city center or unique neighborhood
- Visit to a favorite museum
- Tour of university
- Visit to a local cafe
- Basic cooking class (syrniki, salads, blini)
- Visit to grocery store/market
- Q&A with 2 peers
Other requests/ideas can be discussed.
Level 2 indicates a 50-75 minute experience with a professional guide or multiple peer tutors. These events involve more planning and coordination, or often the services of a professional guide.
Level 2 events typically cost $75-100.
Examples include:
- Tour of the city center (professional guide)
- Tour of a museum (professional guide)
- Moscow & St. Pete metro tour
- Visit to a local exhibit/event
- Basic cooking class (pelmeni)
- Basic craft class
- Food seminar
Other custom requests/ideas can be discussed.
Level 3 indicates a 50-90 minute experience with a professional guide or multiple peer tutors. These events involve extensive coordination, and often the purchase of materials or travel outside of the city.
Level experiences are generally priced from $100-$150+.
Examples include:
- Dacha visit
- Banya visit
- Lake Baikal & other out of city visits
- Visit to organization + guest speaker, etc.
- Backstage / insider visits
- Extended cooking class / craft class
- Dinner with a family
Other custom requests /ideas can be discussed.
Погуляем!
Contact us today to discuss how Погуляем! can help bring your course material to life.
We’re really grateful for the work SRAS is doing and consider them to be a valued partner.
I love them so much! We get to practice our speaking and listening skills with so much one on one dialog, and I always find that I pick up some new unique vocabulary after each one. They also help to really cement the lab work into our heads because they always seem to be connected to them. I also like the challenge of it because we really have to wrack our brains to think of so much on the fly combining recall with active learning to talk and answer questions.
I think this project is fulfilling my main goal – to get my students to overcome their psychological barrier of speaking and get reassurance that they can indeed can sustain a rather long conversation with a native speaker. I could see that they are more comfortable speaking and expressing rather complex ideas despite the grammatical mistakes, which, however, do not hinder the communication of the message.
It is wonderful to see how many important and interesting discussions, workshops, courses, and virtual excursions SRAS has organized during the pandemic. I know our SLI alumni [at University of Pittsburgh] have been in attendance at some of them and are full of praise for their educational value!
I think they’re very useful overall. The content of the sessions themselves overlaps well with the class materials – it definitely improves comprehension. I enjoy them because they’re a nice change of pace from the usual class environment
I really liked the experience of talking with another Russian student and learning about the culture. I learned how diverse cities can be. St Petersburg is like none I have ever seen before. I really would consider studying abroad there.
My students are LOVING the poboltaem sessions.