A week-long international faculty and curriculum development workshop focusing on 'Module Structure and Content Design' for promoting self-guided geospatial education at post-graduate levels was organised at the Department of Geoinformatics, Palacky University, Olomouc from June 19th to 23rd, 2016. The workshop marks a significant milestone for the activities planned within the 'GeoServices-4-Sustainability' (GeoS4S) project co-funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ programme.
workshop participants from all ten partner universities in Asia and Europe |
The project is coordinated by the Interfaculty Department of Geoinformatics - Z_GIS, University of Salzburg, Austria. The consortium includes 9 more partner universities from Europe (3), China (3) and Thailand (3).
One major objective of the 'GeoS4S' project is to develop teaching/learning resources for 20 case study based innovative educational modules, with each partner institution responsible for developing two modules. The attractiveness of these teaching/learning resources lies in the fact that these will support students' self-guided learning process through lessons, self-assessed exercises and instructor evaluated assignments.
All the partners had prepared 3-5 draft lessons of their respective modules according to the agreed structure and syllabi. These were presented in the workshop for critical evaluation and constructive discussion for further improvements. The attendees participated in intensive training on designing dual purpose content of lessons facilitating face-to-face classroom interaction as well as supporting self-guided distance learning processes.
The workshop concluded with enhanced motivation for all enthusiastic participants, who expressed their appreciation about the project activities providing opportunities for expanding their academic contributions beyond their classrooms!