The first physical meeting for the Erasmus Capacity Building in Higher Education project, “INTEGRAL: Intelligent Geotechnologies for Resilient Agricultural Adaptation to Climate Change in Lao PDR,” took place at Lund University in Sweden on September 20-21, 2023.
The event marked a significant step forward in the project's development, with a primary focus on detailed working sessions to review and refine each of the four innovative courses collaboratively developed by the project, leading to the finalization of the four course plans. The meeting successfully achieved the deadline for Deliverable 2.1, submitted the day after the meeting (22 September), which includes a summary of the needs analysis questionnaire results and the four course plans in English and Lao.
Furthermore, the meeting provided opportunities for partners to assign responsibilities for the development of course material. It also addressed issues related to project management, equipment purchase, discussed progress in project communication and dissemination, and planned future activities.
Deliverable 2.1: Four Course Plans
The deliverable report outlines the outcomes of work implemented toward the design of the four new courses, including an analysis of learner characteristics, prior knowledge, and available resources. It also details learning objectives, course content, learning activities, and assessment instruments.
To gather insights into learner characteristics, knowledge, and available resources, an online questionnaire was collaboratively developed by the project partners. The questionnaire, open in May 2023, received a total of 56 replies from students, experts, and instructors/research staff in Lao PDR. The detailed results table was shared with all project partners for review and analysis.
Four project working groups for the design and development of the courses were established, with each group including at least one member from each partner university. For each working group/course, two co-coordinators were agreed upon, one from an EU university and one from a Lao university. Each Lao university co-coordinates a course. A course syllabus template was developed and agreed upon. Course working groups thereafter met through online meetings as needed to develop the course plans.
Finally, at the physical meeting in Lund University in September 2023, representatives from the four working groups reviewed in detail and agreed upon the four course plans. The course syllabus, in English and Lao, includes, for each course, its title, ECTS credits, course hour distribution, course annotation, aim, topics covered, learning outcomes, methods of course studies and assessment, prerequisites, tentative schedule, bibliography, and required IT resources.
The four courses to be developed as part of the INTEGRAL project are:
1. Climate-resilient agriculture, food security and adaptation– the role of intelligent geotechnologies (7.5 ECTS)
2. Geospatial data modelling and visualization for climate-resilient agriculture (7.5 ECTS)
3. Earth observation and monitoring of the agricultural landscape (7.5 ECTS)
4. Intelligent SDIs for resilient agriculture and adaptation (7.5 ECTS).