ITS launches e-learning centre, platform

The Institute of Tourism Studies (ITS) has successfully launched a new online learning facility (ITSELNET) that is already proving a hit with both lecturers and students. It is the first major project of the new Centre for E-Learning Technologies (CELT) at the Institute launched at the beginning of this academic year.

ITSELNET, accessible at www.its.gov.mt, is intended to facilitate the management of courses within the Institute as well as stimulate innovation in the development and delivery of ITS courses.

Over 40 courses are already available on the platform and these include principles of economics, marketing, housekeeping, health and safety, quality control, information technology, customer relations management, e-business and e-commerce, interactive multimedia technologies, financial management and development for tourist guides.

Each course is accessible on the Website that provides presentations, lecture notes, tutorial assignments and other course material. Lecturers and students can keep in constant touch through e-mail and a forum.

Besides offering support to classes held at ITS, ITSELNET will be exploited to provide distance learning to students outside ITS, especially executives and employees in the tourism industries.

The creation of CELT and ITSELNET, under the initiative and directorship of Ray Vassallo, are the fruit of the Institute's participation in the MEDFORIST Project, a three-year initiative sponsored by the European Union to set up a Euro-Mediterranean Network of ICT teachers specialising in applications for trade and industry.

To launch the e-learning facility, ITS hosted a seminar on e-learning a few weeks ago. The keynote speaker was Professor Philippe Barbelet, chief information officer at the Grenoble School of Management, the co-ordinator of the MEDFORIST Project.

The aims and objectives of CELT are:

¤ To create and maintain a centre of excellence for e-learning and computer based learning with special emphasis on their use in the Tourism Industry, at the ITS;

¤ To develop courseware and software systems to support teaching and learning;

¤ To carry out research into e-learning and computer based learning techniques;

¤ To teach and promote the use of e-learning and computer-based learning;

¤ To promote the creation of the information society.

CELT sets out to improve dissemination and networking with others in the field towards its own improvement, for the sharing of work carried out, to obtain feedback and stimulate debate. It particularly welcomes international collaboration and the challenges this brings to its work.

The resources created in the MEDFORIST project will provide the backbone for an eTourism diploma course and other courses aimed at graduated and industry executives. These courses will be delivered mainly through the new on-line learning facility at the Centre for E-Learning Technologies at ITS.

The ITS E-Learning platform is accessible at www.its.gov.mt. For further information, contact Mr Vassallo at the Centre for E-Learning Technologies (CELT) at ray.vassallo@gov.mt.