Training and working meeting, 8-9 February, 2017, Iasi, Romania

A training and working meeting of the BAEKTEL project took place at the “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University of Iași (TUIASI), Romania, Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Protection (February 8-9, 2017). It gathered representatives from three academic partners (“Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University, University of Belgrade and University of Banja Luka), according to the table attached.

The first day of the meeting started with “Welcome and greetings from ‘Gheorghe Asachi’ Technical University of Iași” by Prof. dr. ing. Nicolae Hurduc, Dean of the Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Protection. A short presentation of the faculty was given, with the emphasis on its main approaches related to the open education and e-learning projects and achievements.

The first presentation was “Academic eLearning – A new way to understand user expectations”, made by Costi Andriescu, Commercial Director of Red Point Software Solutions. The company has projects implemented in 19 counties, supporting people and institutions working in education., has 22 partner universities, 154 faculties (manages schooling with university management system), 28 000 students (have online access to their personal gradebook), 5000 professors (have access to examination catalogs), 840 secretaries (have daily access to school information and statistical reports). Advantages and disadvantages of eLearning system are presented, with expectations of the universities (professors and students) and software solutions.

Assistant dr. Adrian Alexandrescu from “Gheorghe Asachi” Technival University of iasi presented “Teaching students using the Moodle learning platform”. Moodle is an online learning management system where teachers can manage their own courses and students have a single access point to all the courses and other related activities. Related to the product, the following are emphasized: features, installation, use, interface; an interactive demonstration is also made.

The next two presentation are based on a linguistic theory, Segmentation-Cohesion-Dependency: “Dictionary Entry Parsing Using Segmentation-Cohesion-Dependency”, Associate professor Alex Moruz, Computer Science Institute of Romanian Academy, Romania and “Segmentation-Cohesion-Dependency Parsing Strategy”, Associate professor Diana Trandabat, “Al. I. Cuza” University, Iasi, Romania.

Then, other two presentations applying eLearning in engineering education, particularly for textile engineering field: “Open source software solution for eLearning used in textile engineering education”, presenter: Lecturer dr. Adrian Buhu, “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University Iaşi, Romania and “E-learning tools for textile engineering field”, Presenter: Professor dr. Mirela Blaga, “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University Iaşi, Romania. eXe Learning software (eLearning xHTML editor) is described and exemplified.

The last presentation, “Software multifunctional platform for Open Educational Resources” was a PowerPoint with auto-self run, slides and voice, containing an interesting educational software product developed bu Romus Trading Company.

There were discussions on each presentation with numerous questions asked by the participants. In particular, the use of the software products was of particular interest.

The second day of the event, which was a working day, focused on discussions related to the financial aspects of the project which is in the final stage. The discussion was conducted by professor Roberto Linzalone from Universita deli Studi dela Basilicata (UBL). Estimative financial situation can be made, collecting the financial statements from all partners. Other aspects approached: quality report, final report of the project, external evaluation.

Photo gallery is available on official facebook page [link].