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Project Dissemination at Teachers’ Meeting at Turiba University

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Category: Dissemination

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On December 14, 2015 a dissemination seminar was held for teachers of Turiba University, Latvia. In the seminar the project team introduced the seminar participants – language teachers and teachers of tourism courses – with the created tasks for A2/B1 language courses in Latvian and the most popular foreign languages spoken in Latvia – English,  Russian, German, Spanish and French. The project team demonstrated the learning program and explained how the tasks had been created and how the course will be implemented in practice. The teachers of Turiba University also had an opportunity to get acquainted with the draft of B2/C1 English course and they expressed various useful ideas on how to better design the tasks so that they would match the learners’ needs.

Dr.paed. Ineta Luka

Professor

Project manager of Turiba University, Latvia

Participation at ECER conference in Hungary 2015

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„KeySkills4EUHotelStaff” project presented for international scientific audience in Hungary

In September 2015 ECER, the European Conference on Educational Research, brought together over 3.000 participants from Europe and around the world to discuss and present their research in Budapest.

The annual European international scientific conference ECER took place at Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary from 7 to 11 September 2015. The aim of the ‘European Conference on Educational Research’ is to create an inclusive platform for initiating, reporting, discussing and promoting high quality educational research, that not only acknowledges its own context but also recognizes wider, transnational contexts with their social, cultural and political similarities and differences. The conference theme of 2015 was "Education and Transition. Contributions from Educational Research".

“The ECER conference in Budapest 2015 addressed different aspects of transition and education across Europe. These include, for example, the changes in the university structure within the fields of humanities and social sciences and their unforeseen effects on educational research. On a larger scale, transitions in political systems are affecting both education and educational research in several regions. Furthermore the economic austerity has forced people across Europe to reorient their lives, not always for the better. Finally, transitions in educational research affect its theoretical and methodological developments.” (ECER 2015 conference website)

Work of ECER is organized in 32 Research Networks each devoted to certain aspects of education and learning. Dr.paed. Ineta Luka, professor of Turiba University, Latvia participated in the conference and presented the project in Network 11 “Educational Effectiveness and Quality Assurance” session “Adults’ Training and Promotion of Values for Integrated Societies”. The report by Ineta Luka “Enhancing Employability Skills for Tourism and Hospitality Industry Employees in Europe” caused participants’ interest and discussions after the presentation. The discussants expressed a wish to be further informed with the results of the course piloting and the created teaching/learning materials. The report is available on: http://www.eera-ecer.de/ecer-programmes/conference/20/contribution/33787/

Dr.paed. Ineta Luka

Professor

Project manager of Turiba University, Latvia

ECER conference

Read more: Participation at ECER conference in Hungary 2015

Dissemination and piloting at French Mediterranean Cuisine-A Taste of Provence

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Category: Dissemination

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French Mediterranean cuisine-A Taste of Provence

Tourism and Catering school Dubrovnik was delighted to welcome a famous French gastro expert Rene-Pierre Gouraud who was very honoured guest on 26^th and 27^th October 2015. Regarding to it the workshop was held and it was great opportunity to disseminate and pilote 2-year project, which was the centre of the workshop as well.

There were hotel managers, chefs from very renowned  Dubrovnik hotels including Libertas Rixos, Radisson Blu, Valamar Hotel Argosy, Tirena, President, Argenita and Maestrali Hotels. Before dissemination session there was conference held. Principal of Tourism and Catering School Dubrovnik Antun Perušina in cooperation with  Nedjeljko Jančić and deputy of County prefect Davorko Obuljen and principal of Split Tourism and Catering School Ivo Bilić introduced the guest the importance of exchanging good practice and innovation and improve new way of teaching and applying new methods of learning applicable for the students. The participants were informed about the project in general and the project results so far. The stakeholders were involved in the project piloting so they already knew both project products. However, the presentation was useful for the later discussion at the round table they had.

E-learning platform was presented in more detail as there are now many tasks for all the 12 languages for all the different topics. It was showed how to use the platform, how the system works and what kind of tasks were prepared. The project flyers were handed out in order to provide them with some more information about the project. They had a chance to try 4 mobile apps and FrontDesk app. They were asked fill in the questionnaire for piloting prepared for it to get some feedback on the piloting. Seventeen participants of the presentation filled in questionnaire and all of them gained useful information on the project. All of them gained useful information about the project from the presentation. Six found the presentation of the project very useful, whereas eight thought it was useful and three quite useful. Regarding the smartphone app all of them answered they gained useful information. Fourteen of them use Android OS, two of them IoS and one of them Windows. Eleven of them evaluated design of the app very good, three of them excellent and three of them good. Four of them said it was very easy to find the information in the apps they were looking for and thirteen of them easy.  If the apps were available on their device, six of them would use it very likely, six of them likely and two of them quite likely.

Regarding the usefulness of the apps for their companies, eight answered that the apps would be very useful, seven answered useful and two quite useful. Seven of them would very likely recommend the apps to others, five of them likely and five of the quite likely. Twelve of them answered the question about knowing any hospitality-based multilingual apps that this was the only one, one said not many and four said very few.

Regarding the FrontDesk programs all of them answered that they gained useful information, fifteen of them use Windows OS and two use Apple.

Three of them evaluated the layout and design of the Front Desk programs excellent, ten of the very good and four of them good.If the FrontDesk programs were available on their computers, three of them would use it very likely, ten of them would use it likely and four of them quite likely.   Regarding the usefulness of the FrontDesk programs for their companies, six answered that they would be very useful, seven answered useful and one quite useful. Seven of them would very likely recommend the FrontDesk programs to others, two of them likely, seven of them quite likely and one of them not at all likely. Six of them answered they did not know any hospitality-based multilingual software programs, five answered they knew a few and three of them many. All stakeholders were advised to feel free to contact project coordinator if they have any further questions regarding the apps.

Hilarija Lozančić Benić

Project team member of TUSDU, Croatia

Dissemination and round table for stakeholders at Ekonomska šola Murska Sobota

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On 22 October 2015 a dissemination session and round table for industry stakeholders and students were prepared at Ekonomska šola Murska Sobota. There were 2 representatives of 2 spas in the region (5 hotels altogether), 2 representatives of 2 hotels in the town, one representative for a tourist information centre, one for a tourist agency, one for the Institute of environment and tourism, one for Nature Park Goričko and one for the coffeehouse Metropol. There were also second-year students of our college and some school employees present.

The participants were informed about the project in general and the project results so far. I very briefly presented the needs analysis report, the course syllabus and the project website. I presented the FrontDesk programs and the mobile apps in more detail, especially for the students. The stakeholders were involved in the project piloting so they already knew both project products. However, the presentation was useful for the later discussion at the round table. I also presented the e-learning platform in more detail as there are now many tasks for all the 12 languages for all the different topics. I showed them how to use the platform, how the system works and what kind of tasks we prepared. The participants were quite impressed by the amount of tasks and the diversity of them. After the introduction and presentation a discussion started about the FrontDesk programs and the mobile apps whereby a lot of things were mentioned that had already been mentioned during the piloting period. Their opinions and suggestions were discussed at the Riga project meeting. Nevertheless, now all the participants of the piloting had the opportunity to exchange opinions and to see what kind of problems occurred at other places. They also came up with some ideas about how to use the e-learning platform for their employees. They were thinking of some kind of “refresher” course for them but also for practising. Regarding the topic “Restaurant kitchen” they liked the idea of the glossary but suggested to add some typical drinks as well. The students also liked the e-learning platform very much and are eager to try some of the tasks.         

Finally, I handed them out the project flyers to provide them with some more information about the project and asked them to tell friends and other people about it. I also asked them to fill in the evaluation sheet prepared for the meeting to get some feedback on the presentation.

The evaluation sheet asked for general information and more specific information regarding the presentation of the project, the presentation of FrontDesk programs and mobile apps as well as the presentation of the e-learning platform.

22 participants of the presentation filled in the evaluation sheet. All of them gained useful information on the project. 21 found the presentation of the project very useful, whereas one thought it was useful. Regarding the smartphone app all of them answered they gained useful information, whereby 19 thought the presentation was very useful and three of them found it useful. All of the participants gained useful information about the FrontDesk programs. 2o of them found the presentation very useful and two thought it was useful. Again, all of the participants gained useful information about the e-learning platform, whereby 21 thought the presentation was very useful and one found it useful.

There were also some suggestions made. One of them was the sound record of words, phrases or whole sentences. Another was the colour difference for languages in the FrontDesk programs. When you have translations in more than 2 languages it would be easier to differentiate among them if they were coloured. Those two suggestions were already discussed at the Riga project meeting. There was one more suggestion about expanding the topics, such as spa tourism, wellness, medical tourism and other. However, this would be enough material for a new project. The representative of the TIC in Moravske Toplice offered to help with promoting the project as she finds the products and contents of the project very useful, especially for people employed in the tourism sector. One more suggestion was already mentioned during the discussion – adding some typical drinks to the glossary under “Restaurant kitchen”.   

All participants, especially stakeholders expressed the wish to be updated about the project, particularly on the e-learning platform.

Erna Vöröš,

Project manager of Ekonomska šola Murska Sobota,

Slovenia