EIA Working Group Training and Knowledge Transfer held a meeting on April 29

EIA Working Group Training and Knowledge Transfer held a meeting on April 29

Present:

Elie Desrues (ED), Andreas Maurer (AM), Damir Cizmek (DC), Fleur martin (FM)

Absent: Joao Florido

 

Meeting minutes

DC opened the meeting and reminded all participants that EIA official meetings must be held within the guidelines and restrictions provided in the EIA Code of Conduct, which all participants received as a document prior to the meeting.

There were no objections or amendments to the proposed meeting agenda.

There were no objections or additions to the Minutes of the WG4 Meeting of 11 April.

DC suggested the present panel will continue the work, other WG4 members will no longer be invited due to inactivity.

ED presented the revisions of the Education program proposal (adding drip irrigation, adding the chapter Standardization). ED added that each module needs to focus on end user needs.

The discussion continued with the review of past EIA education models, mentioning the AG course and the Micro-irrigation course developed for the EIA by Jaime Rivera and Gerard Frendo in 2014 and discussing key challenges which led to eventual abortion of the concept.

Further discussion moved to IT requirements for online course delivery. AM and ED have first hand experience. AM suggests using some of existing web tools integrating solutions for course registration and course delivery. Annual subscription cost for such tool may amount to around 2 K.

DC mentioned the cost for applying payment tool to his existing website was around 2 K.

The next topic discussed was available models for course delivery (in person or prerecorded courses). ED and AM suggest a hybrid between the two may be the best to provide some possibility for interaction with the course participants.

DC presented the project budget format. Taking the financial proposal presented by ED it seems the project development costs may be returned through two full courses (series of 10 modules) with 30 participants per course (60 participants total) willing to take full 10 course program at the price of 50€ per module (500 € for the whole course).

The suggestion came out to organize a panel of test participants (recruited among EIA members) to take one sample module and provide feedback to the work group. FM can approach EIA members willing to provide candidates for the test course. DC suggested that feedback should be collected through a follow-up meeting with participants, it is unrealistic to expect their written feedback.

DC noted we have to be clear about what is the level of competence we promise with the course and the eventual certificate (we don’t want unhappy customers). Decisions to be taken about certificate validity, renewal scheme if there will be any, and promotion of certified persons through EIa communication channels.

ED suggested we can develop pre-test questionnaire to evaluate perticipant’s eligibility (may help the participant to make decision). Examples inside the modules are the best tool to make things clearer and give more practical value to the course.

The meeting finished with the following conclusions and tasks:

  • ED will work on selecting a most representative module and develop it in full as a test module.
  • DC asked ED to try clarifying for the next meeting the benefits of the Certificate, what exactly are the competencies we will certify with the full course (10 modules).
  • AM will investigate and present possible web tools for on-line course delivery at the next meeting and inform about subscription costs.
  • DC will share previous training material (CLIA files, AG course, Microirigation course) with ED, to be used only for EIA project.
  • ED will work on representative module + test questions to be organized as a pilot.
  • Next meeting to include Moshi and Bruno with discussion on budget options.

Next meeting to take place between 27 and 29 May, upon Bruno’s return to France.

Meeting was concluded at approx. 5pm.

Summarized by : Damir Cizmek

 

To join this WG, please e-mail to :  communication@irrigationeurope.eu