VUSSC/Samoa Boot Camp/Team leaders meeting/Day 1

Brief Minutes

Welcome

• Sir John Daniel, President of Commonwealth of Learning gave welcoming remarks outlining the history and scope of the Virtual University for Small States of The Commonwealth (VUSSC)

• Mr. Paul West COL's Director of Knowledge Management & Information Technology further stressed that while COL wil facilitate the training workshop and Boot Camp that the direction and outcomes of the boot camp would reflect the efforts and ideas of the members of this years boots camp.

Tutorials

• Mr. Wayne Mackintosh COL's eLearning , Education Specialist gave a brief tutorial of WikiEducator highlighting the power of this educational and socially engaging technology.
• Ms. Helen Askounis COL's Knowledge Management Coordinator assited by Ms. Helena Fehr gave a brief tutorial of COL's Instructional Design Template as well as the Basecamp a Project collaboration, management, and task software.
• After the team leaders were had a basic understanding of the software to be used Mr. Joshua Mallet COL's Educational specialist jumped started the curriculum development.

The next section outlines these outcomes

Outcomes

Defining Scope

• It was agreed that the the scope of this years workshop would not only cover natural disasters but disasters that resulted from human interventions (war and conflict) as well as other types of disasters (e.g. the potential of disease from avian flu, etc.).
• It was further decided that curriculum would encompass all disasters and crises experienced across Commonwealth Nations
• It was also agreed that the course to be developed in Samoa should be that of a level 100, 3 credit point course and an elective (or school wide course). In this way the course can fit into any programme. Further down the line (in 2-3 years time), other courses can be added to develop it into a full disaster management programme either at certificate, diploma or degree level. This of course would now be the responsibility of all the participants attending the Samoan boot camp, and so that collabrative effort will and should not end in Samoa as stressed in previous boot camps!

Curriculum Development

• The members immediately began to work on developing an outline for a survey course on Disaster Management ( Introduction to Disaster Management)

• The course objectives are summarised below

Objectives

Upon completion of this course, the learner shall be able to: Define Disaster Management Identify the Hazards associated with various disasters Identify the phases of a Disaster management cycle Think critically and apply decision-making skills when designing a disaster management plan Demonstrate awareness of physical , mental and environmental health issues related to disaster management Understand the special challenges faced by vulnerable groups such as women, infant, children, the elderly and physical challenged during disasters Understand the role of education and training in all phases of the disaster management cycle Analyze the effective use of technology across all phases of the disaster management cycle