Aquaculture hosts Curriculum Development Workshop
The Aquaculture and Aquatic Resources Management organized a Curriculum Development Workshop from 9 to 21 July 2006 at AIT.
A total of 20 instructors (five from each institution) participated from Royal University of Agriculture, Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Tribhuvan University, Institute of Agriculture and Animal Sciences, Rampur, Nepal; Research Institute for Aquaculture No.1 / Hanoi Agricultural University, Hanoi, Vietnam; and the University of Agriculture and Forestry, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Their participation was meant to add input to improve the existing curricula of Aquaculture and Fisheries Management courses to an acceptable international standard. Resource persons from AARM, AIT and two European partner institutions the Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling, U.K. and Department of Biology, University of Aveiro, Portugal assisted them in this regard.
There was a need to scrutinize the existing master's degree curricula of these partner institutions to suit them to country specific contexts. The workshop was planned as the main activity of the three-year Curriculum Development project under the Asia Link Program funded by European Commission.
During the workshop each instructor presented an existing syllabus for comments and suggestions from resource persons and other instructors. They had four to five days to discuss among themselves (within or outside their theme groups), to incorporate the comments and suggestions and to collect literature and teaching materials. At the end, the instructors presented the improved syllabus again.
According to the project plan, there will be three semesters in which to test these improved courses in their respective institutions during which resource persons will provide additional supports. Final amendments will be made at the end of the project period. The final courses will be made available online and in the form of CD ROM as well as on a hard copy so that any other institutions can also use them. During the workshop, the participants worked well in groups and discussed future collaboration.
For more information, please contact Dr. Ram C. Bhujel, bhujel@ait.ac.th, Ext. 5472.