From June 28 to July 4, 2014 St. Petersburg State Transport University (Russia) hosted the International Workshop in the framework of European educational project «TEMPUS EcoBRU». The main task of the workshop was to determine the subject areas of distance learning courses of environmental education and individual target groups of school teachers and vocational school teachers. It was done on the basis of the discussed results of an initial survey carried out to identify problems and specification of qualification requirements.
50 representatives of higher education institutions and research institutions from Belarus, Russia and Ukraine participated in the workshop.
Belarus was represented by the following organizations: Belarusian State Agricultural Academy, Vitebsk State Technological University, Francisk Skorina Gomel State University, International Sakharov Environmental University, Polessky State University, Republican Institute for Higher Education, Republican Institute for Vocational Education.
At the workshop Lipetsk State Technical University, Magnitogorsk State Technical University, Novosibisrk Chemical Technological College after Mendeleev D. I., Novgorod Institute of Education Development, Rostov State University of Civil Engineering, Siberian State Geodetic Academy participated from Russia.
Ukraine was represented by The National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine, National Transport University, Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskiy State Pedagogical Institute named after G. Skovoroda, Taurida National V.I. Vernadskiy University.
Western European partners were represented by professors from the University of Paderborn (Germany), the Institute of Technology and Education, Bremen (ITB Bremen), University of Zilina (Slovakia), Transport Research Center of Brno (Slovakia) and the University of Latvia, Riga (Latvia).
The survey results for various target groups, presented by Professor K. Root of ITB Bremen, allowed to determine four key subject areas for the development of e-learning courses of environmental education. These are: information technology and systems; transport and road infrastructure; environmental protection; pedagogy and didactics.
As a result, environmental problems of urban transport and ways to solve them were discussed, the experience of implementing environmental education by project participants was presented and the peculiarities of solving environmental problems were considered. During the meeting, the representatives of all partner organizations made informative and interesting presentations which showed the possibilities and proved the necessity and relevance of implementing e-learning courses for various target groups. The report presented by NTU Associate Professor Victoria Hrut’ba was of great interest. After the discussion, training courses in the field of ecology and their developers were chosen.
The workshop "Organization and operation of distance learning system" allowed the participants not only to present their experience in the development of distance learning systems, but also to discuss a number of issues and problems of technical support. NTU Professor S. Andrusenko submitted a report about NTU experience and activity results concerning the implementation of similar projects. Thus, the possibilities can be used in the current project.
The consultations (project administration, financial matters) of coordination team from the University of Bremen were held for partners and the outcomes of the project stage were provided at the workshop.
The next meeting to represent the summary of course programmes and their discussion is scheduled for 10 - 15 November, 2014 in Kiev.
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