Sónia Seixas

Promoting sustainable aquaculture: Building the capacity of local institutions and online teaching (elearning)

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review a number of recent initiatives to promote sustainable aquaculture development through improvements to education and training capacity, and innovations in the use of eLearning.Design/methodology/approach – The authors share their experience in these initiatives and demonstrate how e‐learning has been developed in specific cases to better serve the needs of the aquaculture sector, while addressing the pedagogical issues of distance learning and finding the best use of new internet‐based technologies.Findings – These examples show how to respond to the needs of adult learners who may have a substantially different learner profile to typical campus students and have a more diverse range of needs and background knowledge. Greater focus is needed on defining, enhancing and accrediting knowledge and skills acquired informally and “on the job”, so as to develop more effective formal education interventions.Practical implications – Adults engaging with job‐related e...

Generic skills needs for graduate employment in the aquaculture, fisheries and related sectors in Europe

There is an increasing demand for highly skilled workers in all advanced industrialised economies. Although most jobs require occupation-specific skills to carry them out, it is widely recognised that generic skills are ever more needed by job seekers, to increase job opportunities and maintain employability; this applies to all sectors of the economy, from selling cars to undertaking marine research. Several recent European Union strategy documents emphasise the importance of generic skills. However, the apparent mismatch between the skills sets that employers seek and that job seekers offer remains a major challenge. This paper focuses on perceptions of and attitudes to generic skills training for university graduates intending to gain employment in aquaculture, fisheries or other marine sectors and presents the results of a survey administered to academics, industry representatives, students (at different stages of their academic career) and graduates. The various respondents regarded most of the 39 generic skills under investigation as important, with none classified as unimportant. However, students undertaking different types of degree (i.e. B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D.) prioritized different generic skills and the level of importance ascribed to generic skills training increased as students progressed in their university careers. On the other hand, university staff and other employers were fairly consistent in their choice of the most important generic skills. We argue that there remains a need to place generic skills and employability attributes and attitudes at the centre of the higher education curriculum.

Innovation and educational changes: two e-Learning cases in aquaculture

Abstract In this paper, we investigate the potential changes that education innovation can bring to education and training in aquaculture. When introducing Information and Communication Technology methods into new educational contexts, situations and/or practices, in the process teacher/practitioners will almost always make use of innovatory technology which in itself can lead to a measure of change within the relevant educational system. Nevertheless, it should not be forgotten that the use of technology is not an end in itself, its use is only justified as a tool to achieve the educational goals that have been set. It is in this spirit that two case studies are presented from current aquaculture curricula, which make use of innovative teaching methodology in the form of e-Learning: one case study is from the Open University (Universidade Aberta) in Portugal [distance teaching in a Master’s programme (Second Cycle)]; the second is from the NAFC Marine Centre, Scottish Qualifications Authority accredited courses in Scotland, UK. We report the pedagogical models on which these courses were built, the tools required to achieve the intended educational objectives and the teaching and learning resources used. We also report the creative stimulus inherent in the innovation processes that allowed the two teachers/instructors to achieve the same, or better, results than traditional teacher-led classroom methods, by using a technology-enhanced teaching process without the need for face-to-face interaction.

Evaluation on the use of e-learning tools to support teaching and learning in aquaculture and aquatic sciences education

AbstractThe study aimed to capture a snapshot of the status of educational means used in teaching and learning in the area of aquaculture, fisheries and aquatic resources management at European level, with specific consideration on the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and e-learning tools. To achieve this goal, an online survey was compiled and made available to teachers and students across Europe. In total, teachers from 31 institutions and students from 40 institutions participated in this survey. This paper presents the findings, considers trends and poses further questions for sector stakeholders to help in the development of future programmes and support. In summary, it can be concluded that few teachers have a comprehensive knowledge of the wide range of ICT tools available and can make use of e-learning tools with complete confidence. There is therefore a real and urgent need to “train the trainers” to use ICT in their teaching environments. From the students’ end, there is a strong desire to learn more about the application of e-learning tools and to use them in their learning process.