Tutorial Presentation

Bio

Paul Nieuwenhuysen is a full-time member of the academic staff at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, since 1983, nowadays as professor.
These days his functions include: member of the management board of the University Library, science and technology librarian, as well
as teaching courses on online information retrieval and presentation.
At the University of Antwerp inter-university postgraduate 2-year program in Information and library science, he was guest
professor responsible for courses on information technology and on the information market until the end of the program in 2009.

At the University of Antwerp he received the degrees of Licentiaat in Physics in 1974, Doctor in Science in 1979, the Belgian
post-doctoral degree (named Geaggregeerde voor het Hoger Onderwijs) in 1983, and the inter-university postgraduate degree
in Documentation and library science in 1986.

He has organized 15 international training courses on management of information in science and technology and has been project leader of
a co-operation with the National Agricultural Library of Tanzania 1998-2008.

He is author or co-author of more than 30 refereed publications in international scientific/technical journals, he is a member of several
societies and of the editorial board of journals in the area of information science, and he has been a consultant for various
international agencies.

Abstract

How to organize postgraduate international training programs is the topic of this tutorial workshop.

This contribution is based on experience gained with the organization / management / co-ordination of a series of 15 international training programs.

The following questions can be interesting for the audience of this conference:

1.       How to obtain financial support to organize the training programs?

2.       How to organize the management, evaluation and improvement of the program?

3.       How to exploit the fast evolution of information and communication technology and services in the announcement of each new program, and to communicate with participants?

4.       How to improve the practical use of computers and Internet by the participants, in view of the fast evolution of hardware and internet access services?

5.       How to cope with the significant differences in background and aims of the participants?

6.       Which types of learning methods and experiences are the most efficient and effective in this kind of program?

7.       It is now widely recognized that in an international educational program, the teachers should adapt their mode of delivery and the contents of their teaching to the students and their local environment, needs and priorities. How to realize this in practice? Here we face the difficulty that many experts who are potential teachers have no clear view on the needs of the participants and their organizations, and have no time to adapt and extend their expertise to meet the expectations of visiting students.

8.       How to assist the participants in converting their intense, concentrated and slightly confusing experience into some structured framework that can serve hopefully in future applications?

9.       How to motivate the participants to translate the experience gained during the program into concrete implementations in their home institute?

10.    How to deal with the reality that there is not just one solution for each professional challenge, while participants want to take home concrete and affordable solutions for one or several local needs in their home organization?

11.    Assessing the progress made by each student can be valuable for the student and also for the organizers of an educational program. What can be the function of assessment of a heterogeneous group of participants in an informal, short and international training program?

12.    How to stimulate interaction among the participants and to provide a basis for future professional and social-cultural contacts?

13.    How to exploit the program not only for professional development, but also as an eye opener to other cultures (culture of other participants; culture of the region where the program is organized; culture of various experts who contribute to the program)?

14.    Follow-up of progress made by participants in their home organization after their return is desirable, but how to realize this?

The following gives some information about the programs that allowed us or even forced us to experiment continuously to improve the organization and the management:

The subject area of the programs is information science and technology and applications in scientific library and information management. Courses, practical work and study visits are organised mainly in Brussels, which is the internationally oriented capital of Belgium. Duration
is about three months. The entry level is bachelor or master. Most of the participants are already professionally active in developing countries, about 1/2 in Africa, 1/2 in Asia and occasionally in Latin America and Europe. One program has been organized each year, on average.
Up-to-date information about the aims and contents of the programs can be found on the WWW site http://www.vub.ac.be/BIBLIO/itp/

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