Follow-on teleconference meeting on e-learning, 28/9/15
 
Present: Nicolas Delerue, Louis Rinolfi, Soeren Pape Moeller, Anders Kaellberg, Roy Aleksan, Yiota Foka, Susanna Falcon, Diego Erik Adli, Ken Oesterberg, Philip Burrows.
Apologies: Lenny Rivkin, Alessandro Variola, Roger Bailey, Yogi Rutambhara.
 
·         TIARA Collaboration Council at its meeting on 2/7/15 gave strong support for including coordination of accelerator education and training within the TIARA remit. Direct TIARA funding is very limited, and therefore we are encouraged to apply for suitable EU (or other) funding schemes to help deliver the TIARA top-priority items in this area.
·         The first such relevant EU call concerns the continuation of EUCARD2: an EUCARD3 project is currently being discussed and prepared under the coordination of Maurizio Vretenar. Nothing is yet fully fixed, but a Networking Activity (NA) work package (WP) on education and training has been earmarked, with an indicative budget of c. 400kEuro to be requested from the EU as part of an overall programme aimed at 10MEuro EU support. Phil is mandated to help prepare such a draft NA work package proposal that could include a handful of beneficiaries, plus a larger number of participants in the Network. The main task of such a WP would be to prepare an e-learning activity aimed at advanced undergraduate students; the possibility of an extension to high-school students, and also some outreach-type of activities, have also been suggested for consideration. The aim would be to extend and complement the existing excellent accelerator school programmes, not duplicate any successfully-running (or planned) activities.
·         Soeren and Erik outlined a successful bid to ERASMUS+, which has secured c. 328kEuro for a ‘Nordic Particle Accelerator School’, including an e-learning component. They and partners were congratulated on this success. It was agreed that it would, ideally, be desirable to collaborate on the e-learning element; this will now be discussed within the Nordic partnership.
·         Yiota circulated a document (attached), prepared by a summer intern, which catalogues e-learning experience in relation to accelerators. We thanked Yiota for this very useful document and will digest its contents in preparation for our continuing discussions.
 
Preliminary thoughts on possible WP tasks:
 
1.       Monitoring of activities of accelerator schools within Europe, to help promote sharing of resources and avoidance of duplication.
2.       Survey of existing e-learning activities in relation to accelerators – SEE ALSO THE DOCUMENT ATTACHED FROM YIOTA.
3.       Exploration of accreditation of an e-learning course by universities and institutes.
4.       Survey of e-learning tools for delivery of a programme.
5.       Definition of intellectual content of the e-learning course.
6.       Assuming all obstacles are overcome: production of the course [this will be a substantial item].
7.       Planning for course delivery, ongoing maintenance and longer-term operation.
 
Next steps and actions:
 
·         Each person to check on her/his institute’s involvement with EUCARD3, in relation to other WPs, and their desire to be involved with the EUCARD3 education and training (E&T) NA.
·         Please send Phil an informal summary of interests, resources that could be contributed, and desire to participate as a beneficiary or as a partner in the NA WP, BY THE END OF THIS WEEK.
·         Phil will prepare an outline of a WP for discussion at the next EUCARD3 preparatory meeting, October 13th.
·         EUCARD3 plans will be reported (by Maurizio) at the next TIARA Collaboration Council meeting on November 17th.
·         We will aim to meet between October 13th and November 17th in order to progress planning for the E&T NA. Phil will circulate a doodle poll to find a suitable date.