Elephant Conservation eLearning Platform
Category: Current
The development of this learning platform stems from the larger project, EU Asia Elephant Conservation, which is based around a network of veterinary faculties and institutes in the European Union (Utrecht University and The Royal Veterinary College) and Asia (Kasetsart University, Chiang Mai University and University of Peradeniya). A major tool used to achieve the project objectives was the creation of an e-Learning platform - which is the focus of this project.
Moodle was chosen as a free learning platform and a test site was hosted at the RVC with the help from the IT department. This test site was utilised for implementation of the project at Chiang Mai University from 23/02/09 – 27/02/09. During this implementation week the following was achieved;
- Educational design of current learning materials specifically for e-Learning delivery
- Staff training in the use of Moodle
- Some discussion and informal teaching was held specific to e-Learning strategies
- Integration of the current web site to the Moodle learning platform.
The week’s development period in Chiang Mai resulted in a number of recommendations and areas for further consideration/development including; further training and education of staff in the use of Moodle and e-Learning strategies and concepts, and identifying a final host for the e-Learning platform taking into account budgetary restrictions.
In June 2009 a host was identified and the platform was successfully migrated.
Asia Elephant Health, Reproduction and Breeding Management Course
As a result of the platform, we developed an International training course on the Management of the Health, Reproduction and Breeding of Asian elephants, which has been delivered several times since 2009. The course has two components, a stand-alone distance (online-based) course that is designed to provide you with background knowledge in elephant reproduction and health so that you will be able to fully engage with the one-week practical training course. This years training course (2014) was held in Kandy, Pinnawela and Uda Walave in Sri Lanka. Previous training courses have been held in Chiang Mai Thailand.