VITRI launches new Mooc on ‘virtual’ tropical forests field course
The “Tropical Forests and Agroforests – Field Research” virtual field course (FOR-248) was launched on March 15th as a temporary substitute for the practical field course that is usually held every second year in Laos, but could not take place this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The course revolves around a series of 360º videos of field research activities, taken by one of the former course participants (Thomas Moon) during the 2019 field course held in Luang Prabang, northern Laos, and also includes an interactive site map embedded with information about the field site, photos and videos. The course is focused on field measurement methods related to five key topics: Value-Chain Analysis, Livelihoods, Environmental Change, Forest Inventory, and Biodiversity. The aim of this virtual course is to introduce real life examples about how research methods are applied in the field. After this virtual field course, the students will be able to identify different research topics in tropical forestry, to choose the right research methods to explore these topics, and link various issues and theories to each topic.
The Mooc was developed in a collaboration between VITRI staff and Mixed Reality Hub of University of Helsinki with financial support from University of Helsinki Digital Leap, Metsämiesten Säätiö Foundation, and Finnish Forest Education
The course is currently only available to enrolled students. For more information contact nicholas.hogarth[ad]helsinki.fi or eshetu.yirdaw[ad]helsinki.fi