WP4: Summary of results

Suggesting 3 new courses for the curriculum

As a result of the WP4, three new courses related to Risk identification, assessment and management of NNS have been proposed for being included in the Curricula of selected Higher Education Institutions (HEI) of the Partner Countries [University of Tirana (AUT), Sarajevo University (UNISA), Montenegro University (UoM), and Bihac University (UNBIH)]. The context and detailed topic of the courses was agreed with the staff of the Partner Countries’ Higher Education Institutions and the staff was trained by direct lessons and by providing the more advanced literature available on the topic in English languages. The following 3 new courses were suggested by the RiskMan Consortium:

Course 1: Biology of aquatic NNS

Course 2: Impacts of Aquatic NNS

Course 3. Risk Analysis and management of aquatic NNS.

Pilot test

A pilot test was carried on to evaluate the consistency of the new proposed courses and to determine involvement and interest of the students of Higher Education Institutions of the Partner Countries in the new courses. Before the pilot test, the Partners of the Programme Countries (MSKU, iSea, UNIPA, HIO, EKOMENLOG and UNIZG) prepared the teaching materials in English for the staff of the Partners Countries Higher Education Institutions and gave a series of frontal training (online) to the teaching staff.

The pilot test was carried out in March 13^rd-18^th in UNISA and the following selected topics of the 3 new courses were proposed as frontal lessons to the participant students:

1- Biological Characteristics of Invasive Invertebrate Species, Freshwater and Marine (Course 1)

2- General characteristics of aquatic organisms (Course 1)

3- Economic impacts of invasive species” (Course 2)

4- Introduction to Risk assessment tools AS-ISK (Course 3)

5- Introduction to Risk Assessment Tools – MaxEnt (Course 3)

Figure 1: Scheme of the frontal lessons topics selected for the Pilot test in UNISA

Outcomes and experiences from the pilot testing were analyzed for further use and to provide suggestions/comments useful for the next academic years and to try to adapt the new courses to the Partner Countries Higher Education Institutions’ criteria. For this, during the frontal lessons made within the pilot test in UNISA Training evaluation and participants’ feedback forms were collected.

General Comments of Pilot Test Feedbacks

A total of 17-20 students attended the pilot test in Sarajevo University. By the analysis of the results of pilot testing, it emerged that all the presented topics were well welcomed by the students. The rare ‘negative’ feedback was related to the lack of practical session. This feedback underlines the importance for students to integrate theoretical lessons with practical especially in the case of the Course 3 - Risk Analysis and management of aquatic NNS Introduction to risk assessment tools- AS-ISK and MaxEnt. These practical lessons, although not included in the pilot test for limited time reasons, were foreseen within the full courses topics and their execution is highly recommended to the staff of the Partners Universities that will carry on the lessons.

Regarding the question ''The presentation meets my expectations'' some negative feedback also emerged for the topic General characteristics of aquatic organisms (Course 1), Introduction to risk assessment tools- AS-ISK (Course 3), and Introduction to risk assessment tools – MaxEnt (Course 3). The reasons for this negative feedback can be as follows:

- for the lesson on ''General characteristics of aquatic organisms (Course 1) the too generic topic of the lesson (students were already aware of the topic being students of the Biology Department) did not attract their attention

- for the lessons related to Introduction to risk assessment tools (Course 3) the negative feedback can be due to the specificity of the topic and the lack of practical examples (due to limited time).

Finalizing the new courses and starting implementation process

The following scheme explain the different steps of the process toward the finalization of the 3 new course in the Curricula of the HEI of the Partner Countries (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Detailed steps of the task 4.4 with relevant timesheet

Step 1: The following equipment were purchased by the HEI and all the material was installed in the PC HEI laboratories to be used by the students.

Step 2: The details about the official reform of the Curricula of the HEI of the Partners Countries with the insertion of the 3 new proposed courses are given in details in the following tables.

AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY OF TIRANA

MONTENEGRO UNIVERSITY

SARAJEVO UNIVERSITY

BIHAC UNIVERSITY