MARE project meeting 5th, 10th May 2022

Within the framework of the MARE project “Marine Coastal and Delta Sustainability for Southeast Asia” funded by Erasmus+, Faculty of Marine Resources Management, Ho Chi Minh City University of Natural Resources and Environment held the  MARE project meeting on May 5 and May 10, 2022.

The MARE project attracts 13 PCs, which are universities and research institutes from Germany, Italy, Estonia, Vietnam and Malaysia. The objective of the project is to improve the capacity of higher education and postgraduate education in Vietnam and Malaysia, to address the issue of governance and sustainable management of coastal and delta areas.

The MARE project meeting with the participation of the two experts Dr. Anton Shkaruba and Mr. Veljo Kabin from the Estonian University of Life Sciences. On the University side, there were the participation of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Huynh Quyen, the University’s principal, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ho Thi Thanh Van, head of the Department of Science, Technology and External Relations, Mr. Le Trung Tri, head of Administration and Equipment Department. Ms. Phan Thi Diem Hanh , Head of Finance Department, Dr. Nguyen Thi Hong Nguyet, Head of Faculty of Economics, Dr. Duong Thi Thuy Nga, Head of Faculty of Information Systems, Dr. Do Minh Tuan, Head of Department of Geodesy, Cartography and GIS, Dr. Le Thi Kim Thoa Deputy head of Marine Resources management Faculty,  teachers and students from the Faculty of Marine and Island Resource Management, Ho Chi Minh City University of Natural Resources and Environment.

Opening the program, Dr. Le Thi Kim Thoa, MARE project manager introduced the participants and the objectives of the MARE project meeting.

Dr. Le Thi Kim Thoa, project manager of MARE introduces participants and contents of the seminar program

Assoc.Prof.Dr. Huynh Quyen – Rector of Ho Chi Minh City University of Natural Resources and Environment welcomed two experts from the European Union, teachers of Departments, Faculties and students who attended the meeting. In the opening speech, he emphasized the importance of the MARE project in building and developing the online training management system with a modern approach. This system has met the needs of HCMUNRE in managing and monitoring the teaching and learning quality of lecturers and students. Especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Assoc.Prof.Dr. Huynh Quyen – Rector of the University gave the opening speech of the meeting

He hopes that through the report on the implementation of the MARE project and the introduction of HCMUNRE’s e-learning system, the university’s teachers will receive experience sharing about the e-learning system operating at  EMU. He also emphasized the discussion, exchange of contents, plans for training trips in the near future, and opportunities for expanded cooperation with member partners in the future.

Representative of European partners, Dr. Anton Shkaruba, Estonian University of Science and Life, thanked the university for the warm welcome. He highly appreciated the results achieved by the teachers in the project, and the school’s efforts in expanding relationships and cooperation with project members, especially during the covid pandemic.

Dr. Anton Shkaruba, Estonia University of Life Sciences speaking at the meeting

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Huynh Quyen presents a souvenir to Dr. Anton Shkaruba

Dr. Le Thi Kim Thoa – Project manager, Faculty of Marine Resources Management reported the progress of the MARE project implementation. She said that the MARE project up to now has built and put an e-learning online training system into use for students majoring in Marine and Environmental Management. Besides the achievements, she also presented the difficulties and challenges when implementing the project, especially in the context of the recent covid-19 pandemic.

Dr. Le Thi Kim Thoa briefly presented the results of the project and the difficulties in the implementation
of the MARE project

The project staff in turn reported the school’s co-finance, the process of building the e-learning system, cooperation activities, and signing with members in the framework of the MARE project. Results of the implementation of online teaching using the e-learning system; Results of collecting feedback from students, lecturers, stakeholders about online courses on e-learning system.

After the report on the results achieved up to now and the highly agreed responses from students and teachers participating in the e-learning system of the MARE project, the participants discussed and shared the implemented content, exchange issues that need to be overcome and find ways to overcome the limitations of the current e-learning system.

At the end of the first working day, the members attending the workshop took souvenir photos together

On May 10, 2022, the expert delegation returned to Ho Chi Minh City. Ho Chi Minh City to deploy the content of academic exchanges and advanced lesson design training on the Project’s e-learning system for the lecturers of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Natural Resources and Environment.

At the beginning of the working session, Dr. Anton Shkaruba introduced research directions and topics that European experts can share and collaborate with to improve research and teaching capacity for teachers and students of the PCs of the MARE project.

Dr. Anton Shkaruba introduces the main research directions of the European member experts

After that, the lecturers discussed the topics and research directions of interest, and shared ideas and research plans for the possibility of implementing the program for future PhD students.

Staff share interest topics, research directions, and collaborate with project partners

Continuing the presentation of Dr. Anton Shkaruba, IT expert Veljo Kabin, from Estonian University of Life Sciences introduced the e-learning training system at EMU and shared valuable experiences with the teachers participating in the MARE project.

Veljo Kabin presents EMU’s e-learning system and shares experiences

Teachers discussed and asked questions about how to manage and operate the e-learning system at EMU. After that, there was an advanced training session with in-depth content in designing course lectures, methods of assessing students in the learning process as well as organizing final exams, managing transcripts…

After two days of active work, the project meeting ended and was a great success. The Ho Chi Minh City University of Natural Resources and Environment is very grateful for the active support of experts in the past few days and we are very grateful to the Erasmus foundation for creating favorable conditions for project members to have the opportunity, extensive cooperation in research and teaching.