The goal of this project is developing curricula for academic and vocational master studies in the field of DBBT. The new curricula will be in line with those used at the world's leading schools in the relevant fields of study and consistent with the Europe 2020 strategy, the Strategic Framework for European Cooperation in Education and Training and the Bologna process. Curricula of academic and vocational master studies will be introduced in order to provide knowledge in the field of DBBT and to educate students for using, designing and developing solutions in the field of DBB technologies.
All courses in curricula will be taught using contemporary teaching methods, such as problem based learning, game based learning, case study method, etc. Courses will be organised using blended learning concept – a combination of traditional and e-learning concepts. All course materials and activities will be available to students through a distance learning system. During their studies, students will be involved in practical work and internships in broadcast & broadband companies that participate in the project.
In order to students gain theoretical and practical knowledge that can be applied immediately after the graduation, two laboratories will be set up: the laboratory with appropriate hardware and software infrastructure for analysis of broadcasting& broadband technologies and, digital multimedia HDTV studio with appropriate equipment needed for implementation of digital multimedia services.
Students will be involved in project implementation at several levels:
- on internal meetings in each high education institution students will be informed about the project progress. They will give suggestions and recommendations for all phases of study programme development and implementation
- students feedback on introduced study programmes will be one of the main indicators of the project quality
- students will be actively involved in promotion of developed study programmes.
Since the project involves a number of partners and a number of activities, ensuring smooth execution and coordination of these activities as well as managing all stakeholders are important project management tasks. The basic project management approach is to have an operationalProject Management Committee (PMC) and the Steering Committee (SC). The SC willconsist of staff with significant management experience that will be responsible for monitoring and guiding the project activities. The PMC will consist of representatives of each partner institution and these representatives will be leaders of some work packages. In this way the operational management body – PMC will always manage daily activities and be familiar with the progress of each task. Precise milestones and delivery dates as well as the content of the deliverables are defined in a detailed project plan. Project control will be established, supported by communications tools and an Internet collaboration platform. A self-check mechanism for the work package leaders and other participants will provide an early warning system to identify deviations from the work plan and make it possible to establish contingency plans. The objective of the day-to-day management is to keep the project always closely aligned with the project plan and reduce the risks associated with project activities. Individual effort for administration of the project should stay at a minimum, including the number of meetings necessary to control the project. Phone/online meetings will be used for regular interaction with the research partners and follow up of activities performed on their sites.
Project will be coordinated by Project Management Committee (PMC), who will organize and coordinate work in all work packages. PMC meetings will be held four times per year.
Work on the project will be monitored and controlled by Steering Committee (SC). Final versions of all project deliverables will be evaluated and accepted by SC, or improved until accepted. SC meetings will be held twice a year.
The objective for the decisions making process is to achieve consensus in all relevant issues. The project management will try to prevent all conflicts, sometimes serving as a mediator between parties and help to find a mutual settlement, but in the case when management cannot solve conflicts, the final steps of conflict resolution will be arbitration and/or court case.
All activities in the project will be organised through the work packages that represent logical units of work. In the first year of project implementation will be set up methodological bases for curricula development, curriculum for academic and vocational master studies will be developed, methodology for implementation of study programmes will be set up, equipment will be purchased and installed in labs. Second year of project implementation will include activities concerning the introduction of study programmes: accreditation at National Accreditation offices, intensive promotion in high schools and HEIs, training of the teachers and enrolment of students. Third year will consist of activities of teaching and learning within innovated and designed study programmes, as well as evaluation of students’ success and their feedback. Activities concerning dissemination, quality planning and project management will be performed continuously during the project implementation.
