Role of ODL on sharing pilot plant resources among European Food Engineering Universities

• Main Author: Vieira, M. M. C.
• Publication Date: 2006
• Format: Article
• Language: eng
• Source: Repositórios Científicos de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP)
• Download full: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/2688
• topic: E-learning; Distance-learning; Virtual; Pilot-plant; Food; ISEKI

The new means of communication in the last decade opened new learning opportunities that include the so called distance learning or opened distance learning. These are being more and more used by educational institutions at all levels. The EU Thematic Network ISEKI_Food (Integrating Safety and Environmental Knowledge Into Food Studies towards European Sustainable Development), through working group 5, in charge of Practical/Laboratorial teaching at Pilot Plant scale, developed some work in order to assess the current situation in the institutions that teach food engineering and food science in Europe. A questionnaire was developed and sent to several institutions to know if e-learning was being already used to teach topics such as unit operations and food processing and if virtual experiments were being developed thinking of those to whom the real presence in the pilot plant laboratory to attend practical classes is too difficult. The results showed that European universities are far from being familiar with ODL/DL. At least in what concerns food studies, it seems that the first steps are being taken just now with the objective of reaching other possible markets or to follow the new technologies, being only 27%, the ones who already feel the demand.