The online course „Maya Hieroglyphic Writing – beginner level” was prepared in 2003 to celebrate 25 years of cooperation between the University of Warsaw and the University of Bonn, and in particular the close relations maintained by Prof. Mariusz Ziółkowski, Head of the then Andean Archaeological Mission (operating at the Historical Faculty of the University of Warsaw), and Prof. Nikolai Grube of the Institute for Ancient American Studies and Ethnology (Institut für Altamerikanistik und Ethnologie, University of Bonn). The authors of the course are Elisabeth Wagner and Sven Gronemeyer of the University of Bonn, working under the scientific supervision of Prof. Nikolai Grube. The University of Warsaw, for its part, provided the Moodle platform, managed by the Center for Open and Multimedia Education (COME), already a unit highly experienced in conducting various types of courses using the Internet. „Maya Hieroglyphic Writing – beginner level” was the first course of its kind in the world, providing a systematic introduction to learning how to read Maya glyphs. The first edition of the course opened in the academic year 2003/04.
During the first edition of the course, in the academic year 2003/04, the course was coordinated by PhD students of the University of Warsaw: Justyna Olko, Agnieszka Świątecka and Katarzyna Mikulska, as well as dr Andrzej Karwowski (Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń). The technical support from COME was provided by Aneta Nowak. The same team worked in the following two years (2004/05 and 2005/06). In 2006/07 and 2007/08, the course was run by: dr Justyna Olko (Research Centre on Antique Tradition at the University of Warsaw), mgr Agnieszka Świątecka (staying at the Complutense University in Madrid, Spain) and mgr Boguchwała Tuszyńska (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań). Next year (2008/09) the team included Agnieszka Świątecka (responsible for course registration and technical matters) and Boguchwała Tuszyńska (leading discussions and evaluating exercises).