Requirement Meeting

1-2 October 2018

Asia Europe Institute, ASEM Room - Level 1, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur

Building Social Research Capacities in Higher Education Institutions in Lao PDR and Malaysia (BRECIL)

Main Objective:

To gather requirements and specifications from all partners for the development of a new Training-of-Trainers (TOT) curriculum/programme to achieve project objectives of the DEV1 work package.
To conduct a thorough walk through and reviews on the existing TOT modules in order to revamp their contents into relevant Chapters, including the ICT components, and incorporating Laotian contexts and relevance of EU experience in research education.

About the Meeting

This event comprises 2 days of group-based discussions and interactive sessions to collect requirements, ideas and feedback from all Partners by using the template for Requirements document.
Prior to the walkthrough of existing TOT modules, some informative sessions were presented about the aims of BRECIL to revamp and introduce new Chapters, by taking into account the academic credits, ICT features and new topics inclusion required by this project.
Partners whom attended this meeting includes representatives from UM and UUM, Laos universities i.e. NUOL and SU, and GOTH members who communicate with everyone via Skype virtual meetings.
Even though we can only conduct our discussions via Skype with our partner from GOTH, they had provided some pre-recorded Slides such as the introduction to ECTS and the Swedish syllabus on research methodology education for tertiary education. This information becomes relevant to the project as we will include some best practices learned from the EU experience to be included for the development of BRECIL/TOT programme for the Laotian universities.
At the end of both days, all requirements gathered will be discussed with GOTH and then finalised, thus wrapped up by the Project Manager. Key decisions are noted down and subsequent plans for TOT development are presented.

Outcomes

Information about research education and TOT programmes were shared among all partners; this includes briefing about the past ASEAN/TOT modules (by UM), research learning in the Swedish contexts and ECTS (by GOTH), ICT for research (by UUM), and some background information in the Laotian contexts (by NUOL and SU).

Partial completion of the Requirements Tool document for all 10 revamped Chapters, and 5 additional new Chapters which includes topics on ICT in research, Research and the Society, Inter/multi-disciplinary and Cultural research, Research in Laos, and Educational Topics for Master Trainers.
Assimilation of the existing TOT concepts with EU experiences in research education (which comprises Swedish syllabus of research methodology courses, and the ECTS), inclusion of ICT technologies and components in programme (through partnership with UUM), and integration with the Laos contextual information (provided by both Laotian partners).
Creation of plans and tasks for the development phase of TOT (TOT development action plan) that involves the cooperation between TOT authors, Laotian informants, and BRECIL partners. This plan outlines the development of Chapters according to the proposed BRECIL/TOT curricula based on the Requirements Tool, instruction guides and author guidelines, and subsequently, all sub-tasks of editing, proof-reading, quality-checking and compilation of Chapters and guides to finalise the development of the BRECIL/TOT Handbook to be used for training in the next phase in DEV1 work package of this project.
Networking between the TOT authors and the BRECIL team allows both parties to exchange their views and shared constructive ideas concerning the development of a revamped TOT programme to achieve the project objectives. This event provides a space for all parties involved in the Requirements Gathering activity to negotiate and determine what content, context and information are relevant to be included in the TOT Chapters that will facilitate Laotian Master Trainers to deliver an effective research education syllabus to the Laos academic community.

Conclusion

This event is pertinent to achieving the project objectives to develop a TOT curricula to empower, enhance and equip Laotian trainers with research knowledge and skills to conduct and teach research in their education institutions. Without a proper Requirements gathering activity, or face-to-face discussion between the TOT authors and all BRECIL partners, this project may not be able to adopt a comprehensive, good quality and holistic approach to ensure a successful delivery of DEV1 outputs.