THE SASAKAWA PEACE FOUNDATION

Enhancing Distance Education for the Pacific Island Community

5,500,000 yen [Grant Project]
Tokai University (Japan)

Distance learning has been acknowledged as an effective means of education in the Pacific islands, and systems for distance learning have been constructed in the area of medical education in major cities, but isolated islands have little access to distance learning, and new approaches will be necessary to achieve effective distance learning in isolated islands. This project plans to develop new distance learning systems that can work even in the case of unexpected disasters in isolated islands. For this purpose, Tokai University will prepare teaching materials and invite distance learning affiliates from isolated islands, and provide them with training at Tokai University. Activities and experience will be shared through conferences and internet forums.

Distance learning management training programs for people from isolated islands
(1) Training
Trainees will learn HTML programming for beginners, the basics of wireless LAN, communication in disasters, and so on. After completion of the training, new distance learning network systems for isolated islands will be published.
(2) Period
110 days in the project period
(3) Trainees
Two trainees will be selected from among candidates with experience in managing distance learning in the Pacific islands.
Teaching materials for training
Tokai University will develop teaching materials for the management of distance learning. The teaching materials will include first aid methods for general people, firefighters, emergency medical technicians, and medicare people.

(First year of a 3-year project)