The Covid-19 pandemic is pushing European society to transformative changes in technologic, economical and social dimensions. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have been crucial for Higher Education Institutions, teachers and learners during the first covid19 wave. However, the forest sector is generally considered as late adopters in new ICTs due to several reasons, including that the economic profitability of the sector is very low and online connectivity in the forests is poor. Both lead to a situation where the incentives for the actors (learners, teachers, ICT services providers...) to develop ICT adapted services for the sector are low. However, the role of forest ecosystems and their management for green development is crucial. By fostering forest education, we are fostering different important objectives of the European Union by (1) enhancing online, distance and blended learning in the forest sector, (2) promoting a rapid socioeconomic recovery with special emphasis on a more resilient rural job market by introducing cutting-edge technology in forest education and, in the long-term, (3) facilitating the transformation of the EU into a fair and prosperous society with a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy. The Virtualization of Forest Studies project (VirtualForests) is a Strategic Partnership involving experts in forestry, geoinformatics and information technology representing four higher education institutions and two non-governmental organizations representing four countries. The project is coordinated by the University of Valladolid, Spain. The overarching goal is to develop and share innovative, digital-based educational tools, platforms, teaching methods and frameworks in forest ecosystem studies. The specific project objectives are to (1) strengthen cooperation and networking between partners and other relevant organizations and stakeholders, (2) promote the development, testing, and implementation of innovative open educational resources and learning practices, (3) support education and training of professionals at different levels and career development stages to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion in learning, and (4) increase the international visibility and reputation of participating HEIs while simultaneously expanding international student access to open educational resources in a sector under-represented among online studies. A series of in-person and online meetings, training workshops and intensive learning periods targeting consortium members (i.e. teachers, students and staff) and industry professionals will help facilitate the realization of project objectives. Intellectual outputs of the project represent a significant contribution of open educational resources for students, working professionals and anyone around the world with a stake in forest ecosystems or the topic of (innovative) digital and blended online learning environments. For example, planned outputs include: virtual forest tours integrated with real-life forest monitoring and training plots (marteloscopes) and associated data, 3D point-cloud and other remote-sensing derived data, augmented-reality interfaces and pedagogical framework.; International Learning Locations in non-European forest ecosystems; "Internet of Trees” (a sensorized forest plantation as an educational product); Linked Open Data in modelling and simulation platforms, as well as an eLearning platform and modalities for involvement of “citizen scientists”; and Chatbot development for student information and buddy teaching assistant for leveling students.
This project aimed to create and disseminate cutting-edge, digital-based educational tools, platforms, teaching methods and frameworks for forest ecosystem studies in Europe and beyond. The main outcomes of the project are: (1) enhanced collaboration and networking among partners and other relevant organizations and stakeholders, (2) improved development, testing, and implementation of innovative open educational resources and learning practices, (3) supported education and training of professionals at various levels and stages of career development to foster equity, diversity, and inclusion in learning, and (4) increased the international visibility and reputation of participating HEIs while also broadening international student access to open educational resources in a sector that is under-represented in online studies.
Covid-19 pandemic crisis heightened the need to technologize the Higher Education Institutions. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) were crucial for Institutions, teachers, learners, and society in general during the first covid19 wave and with everyone's effort, we were able to adapt the Higher Education Institutions to transformative changes in technologic dimensions. However, the forest sector is generally considered as late adopters in new ICTs due to several reasons, including that the economic profitability of the sector is very low and online connectivity in the forests is poor. Both lead to a situation where the incentives for the actors (learners, teachers, ICT services providers...) to develop ICT adapted services for the sector are low. VirtualForests is the perfect opportunity to accelerate the development of the forest sector education at different levels in terms of technology and digitalization, but not only in Education Institutions, VirtualForests pretend to facilitate informed citizen participation in the decision-making processes. Moreover, by fostering the education in the forest sector we are working on the education of new professionals and leaders and in the provision of skills to citizens to foster sustainable use and conservation of forest ecosystems in Europe and overseas, contributing to the European Commission’s European Green Deal Communication. Most of the Consortium members had been cooperating positively in the past under different projects in line with the objectives of the call. For instance, HNEE, UVa and VNU-HUS participated in the Erasmus+ project “European-Vietnamese Higher Education Network For Sustainable Forest- And Bio-Economy”; CESEFOR managed the exceptional cost of the BioEcoN project to develop an e-learning platform; UVa and IEFC have worked together in different European projects as an EU FP7-KBBE collaborative project (SINWOOD project http://simwood.efi.int/), Forsee Interreg Europe project (http://www.iefc.net/forsee/) or REINFFORCE network (http://reinfforce.iefc.net), whose data are network is been implemented in VirtualForests project; CESEFOR collaborated with VNU and UVa to establish the first online campus fully operated locally in Vietnam (http://ecampus.cargis.org:1080/moodle/). Therefore, VirtualForests is a great opportunity to continue implementing innovative teaching and organizational approaches in the forest sector leveraging the partners' experience of working together.