About eMPIRICA

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College of Computer Science and Business Communications eMPIRICA in Brcko District of BiH was founded by the Local Business Initiatives Foundation Brcko District of BiH and  Ljubljana School of Business,  Slovenia. Department of Education within Brcko District government issued a formal decision on 5th January 2012 that College of Computer Science and Business Communications eMPIRICA met conditions for establishment and work as a higher education institution (license - first accreditation). The first freshmen generation enrolled in 2012/2013.

College of Computer Science and Business Communications eMPIRICA organises classes within two study programs: Engineering Informatics and Business Informatics. Both programs last 3 years respectively and each awards 180 ECTS. The classes are conducted in two ways: through regular studies and distance learning.

At both study programmes the classes are conducted by 19 teachers and associates, those being:

2 Associate Professors, 4 Assistant Professors, 1 PhD holder working as a Senior Lecturer, 1 PhD holder working as a Lecturer, 5 M.Sc's working as Lecturers, 2 M.Sc's working as Teaching Assistants, 2  B.Sc's in Electrical Engineering working as Teaching Assistants, 1 BA in Economy working as a Teaching Assistant, 1 BA in English Language and Literature working as a Teaching Assistant.

What sets us apart from other institutions of higher education in BiH is the fact that we provide a dual, BiH-Slovenian diploma at the study program Business Informatics. With its decision number 6033-99/2012/4, Slovenian Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education officially gave its approval for the transnational education contract signed by Ljubljana School of Business and College of Computer Science and Business Communications eMPIRICA for the study program Business Informatics. Thereby, the study  programme Business Informatics at College of Computer Science and Business Communications eMPIRICA became the only transnational Business Informatics study programme in BiH which offers students a dual diploma upon graduation: a degree issued by a licensed higher education institution- College of Computer Science and Business Communications eMPIRICA and a degree of an accredited study program within higher education institution in Slovenia - Ljubljana School of Business.

Furthermore, eMPIRICA offers its students education so as to acquire the acknowledged Cisco industry certificate within its authorized local Cisco Networking Academy at the eMPIRICA College for the study program Engineering Informatics. The study programme Engineering Informatics at eMPIRICA is the only Engineering Informatics programme in BiH which within its curriculum enables students to attend Cisco Networking Academy programme. In that way students simultaneously take exams from their curriculum and acquire Cisco Networking Academy degrees ubiquitous to the whole world (Cisco Networking Academy is a global educational programme which enables attendants to acquire fundamental ICT skills in the domains of design, construction and managing computer networks, as well as other skills necessary for development of your career such as problem solving, team work and critical thinking. The programme, which is one of a kind in the whole world was established in 1997 and is annually taken by 900,000 attendants.)

Our classrooms and laboratories are furnished with state of the art equipment from the domain of information and communication technologies (full Cisco laboratory, laptops, personal computers, projectors and interactive electronic board, etc.).

For each student we have ensured an access to Microsoft DreamSpark software development tool package, where they can download free Microsoft software needed in the course of their studies, from operative systems to development tools used in the class. All students receive a personal e-mail address in the domain empirica.edu.ba, so they can access the mentioned services.

eMPIRICA library is provided with all the syllabus students’ books from all courses, so the students are not required to buy the necessary materials.

Apart from that, based on the contract on library resource usage of our co-founder Ljubljana School of Business, the students have an access to additional 2000 titles from the area of computing, IT and economics and soon they will also access the electronic service Cobbis and database Proquest. eMPIRICA library will continue to be provided with mandatory and additional materials.

Since its beginnings, eMPIRICA implements procedures and activities so as to enhance higher education quality, which are mostly reflected on the following:

• Continual development of institutional capacities,
• Development and application of procedures to monitor the quality of the way teaching process is conducted,
• Development and application of procedures of continual teaching staff education in application of educational and ICT technologies,
• Development and application of procedures to ensure high quality e-materials and e-learning process,
• Development and application of procedures to monitor results students make in their continual studying and during exams,
• Evaluation of the teaching process and teaching staff via conducting a survey among students at the end of each semester, for each course and each professor/teaching assistant,
• DMS (Document Management System) system implementation in eMPIRICA work.

Within eMPIRICA College there is a Distance Learning Centre, an organizational unit which initiates, develops and manages study programme which is delivered through distance learning. The centre cooperates with the academic and other staff, as well as with other eMPIRICA’s organizational units so as to develop distance learning study programme  that is commensurate with the curriculum, syllabus, available teaching staff and experts, as well as technical means and other materials.

In the period June-September 2012, Distance Learning Centre organized a series of trainings for the teaching staff regarding the usage of technologies necessary for creation, distribution and management of e-content and e-learning process. Owing to this, all teachers that conduct classes have acquired necessary knowledge and skills and before starting their classes they have developed their e-materials and created e-classrooms for their courses for the distance learning students. These materials can be used by regular students as well. The materials are available to the students via our LMS/LCMS e-learning platform eCampus (www.ecampus.ba). The Centre staff continually helps the teachers in developing and distributing e-materials, especially in the area of multimedia educational content production, which are developed through software tools such as Camtasia, or interactive board. These contents are uploaded to eMPIRICA’s YouTube channel privately and are available for our students only. Some of them are publicly uploaded and can be viewed on http://www.youtube.com/user/VSeMPIRICA?feature=watch .

Apart from our eCampus platform, lectures for distance learning students are delivered via web conference lectures, aided by Adobe Connect service. Distance learning students are required to perform a specific number of lab practices on the actual equipment depending on demand and syllabus. These practices are organized in the afternoon or over the weekends.

Through its Lifelong Learning Academy-ACU eMPIRICA - eMPIRICA College also enables students and the citizens education and testing in the ICT field through the authorized local Cisco Academy eMPIRICA and an authorized Certiport centre. In November 2012, eMPIRICA College became an authorized Certiport testing centre- it was authorized to offer and conducts Certiport exams. Thereby, eMPIRICA College has become part of a developed network of over 12,000 authorised Certiport testing centres around the world. Certified programs offered by Certiport are: Microsoft® Office, Microsoft® Technology Associate, Adobe® Certified Associate,  CompTIA Strata™ IT Fundamentals, Autodesk® Certified User, Intuit® QuickBooks Certified User certified programmes and Internet and Computing Core Certification (IC³®). The importance of this authorization can be illustrated with the fact that Certiport is the world leader in certified exams and practical test solutions for academic institutions, labour force and technologies corporate markets. In the following period, through its lifelong learning program, eMPIRICA will devise training offers as well, for IT programmes of the prestigious IT companies such as Microsoft Adobe and others.

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