14 - th EUROPEAN CONFERENCE E-COMM-LINE 2013, Bucharest , September 24, 2013

NEW STRATEGY OF INTEGRATING E-LEARNING SYSTEM IN TRAINING FOR

WELLNESS

GEORGESCU Luminita

1, AVRAMESCU Taina

2, CIUCUREL Constantin

1, NECSOI Cristina

1, TUDOR

Mariana1

1University of Pitesti,

2University of Craiova

Abstract People's health and wellness represents a major and complex issue of concern with great importance both to present, future.

The alarming signs of its degradation, as well as the changes in the occurrence and pathogenesis of diseases need the enforcement of

urgent measures, but also the cooperation and mutual effort of specialists from various fields of activity who should work in a close

relation to organizations and decision makers. It can be seen that more and more approaches of health refer directly or indirectly to

the wellbeing of the people and at the same time there is a positive feedback from other fields of science (Mechanics and

Technology, Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Geography etc.).

This paper is based on the Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation project, e-Training for Wellness in SPA Services / e-TRAWELSPA (Ref. No. LLP-LdV-ToI-2011-RO-022), which we developed to identify the needs of wellness and SPA education

and to provide appropriate solutions from the perspective of log life learning.

The aim is to offer a realistic and updated image of the training needs in the health tourism system for partner countries (RO,

BG, AU, GR) and to provide information about vocational education and training system (VET) and the e-Learning prospects in

wellness and health tourism education, all integrated in a European context.

Keywords strategy, E-learning, system, training, wellness

Content of paper People's health and wellness represents a major and complex issue of concern with great

importance both to present, future. The alarming signs of its degradation, as well as the changes in

the occurrence and pathogenesis of diseases need the enforcement of urgent measures, but also the

cooperation and mutual effort of specialists from various fields of activity who should work in a

close relation to organizations and decision makers. It can be seen that more and more approaches

of health refer directly or indirectly to the wellbeing of the people and at the same time there is a

positive feedback from other fields of science (Mechanics and Technology, Biology, Physics,

Chemistry, Geography etc.).

This paper is based on the Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation project, e-Training for Wellness in SPA Services / e-TRAWELSPA (Ref. No. LLP-LdV-ToI-2011-RO-022), which we developed to identify the needs of wellness and SPA education and to provide appropriate solutions

from the perspective of log life learning.

The aim is to offer a realistic and updated image of the training needs in the health tourism

system for partner countries (RO, BG, AU, GR) and to provide information about vocational

education and training system (VET) and the e-Learning prospects in wellness and health tourism

education, all integrated in a European context.

The targeted groups / potential beneficiaries are physical therapy students, physical therapy

professionals, academic staff in health and tourism education, employees and managers of treatment

centres and hotels from health resorts and private practice sectors: universities, professional

organizations, health institutions, SPA and wellness centers, stakeholders.

In order to address all the needs of this sector we established the learning curricula and four

training modules after we: 1) identified the e-learning level in health tourism education; 2) defined

the professional competences in wellness and SPA therapy and 3) described the reference levels,

14 - th EUROPEAN CONFERENCE E-COMM-LINE 2013, Bucharest , September 24, 2013

certification principles, VET methods and programmes in the field of health tourism and wellness

education. The content of the courses and of the associated practical activities is in accordance with

the need of introducing a new qualification designed for wellness and SPA services.

Curricula for the Organization and management of SPA and wellness centres include 6 modules. The curricula is based on the actual training curricula in management, offering a first step

for sustainability by assuring that the results can be easily adapted to national educational

framework.

The curricula for SPA therapists addresses to 3 modules. It was designed for the open public:

students who want to complete their professional training and to obtain new competences that will

enable their hiring even from faculty; vulnerable groups; high school graduates wanted to work in

the field of wellness; people interested in professional re-conversion to obtain a job.

The curricula for the postuniversitary course named Applications of massage within balneary resorts comprises 260 hours and it offers up to date and accessible information for kinesitherapists and physical therapists, assuring at the same time an additional training designed to balneary

resorts.

The target groups have as potential beneficiary graduates in Kinesitherapy and Physiotherapy

and the aimed sectors are Health, Tourism and Wellness education-continuous training.

We developed also curricula for the postuniversitary course Applications of hydrokinesiotherapy within balneary resorts. This product also offers up to date and accessible information for kinesitherapists and physical therapists and assures an additional training designed

for balneary resorts. The target groups are the potential beneficiaries: graduates in Kinesitherapy,

Kinesitherapy and special motricity or Physiotherapy. The sectors in which this can be

implemented are: health, tourism and wellness education-continuous training.

Another objective of this project was to support the development of innovative ICT- based

content, services, pedagogies and practice for lifelong learning. To cover this objective an e-

learning platform based on Moodle (multilingual learning management system) has been

established in order to incorporate training modules and methodologies in the form of e-learning

courses for training in SPA services.

Moodle, like most learning management systems, contains essential tools like discussion

forums, quizzes, wikis and file sharing, but it also contains much more than this. One of the key

strengths of Moodle is its flexibility. It is modular in nature and can therefore be extended to

include extra features relatively easily. In fact, there are over 600 additional modules for Moodle.

And because Moodle is open source, these modules are all free for anyone to download and use as

often as they like. Moodle has revolutionized the learning process, by offering an advanced and

user-friendly solution for encouraging the collaborative work of students and teachers. It comes

with a toolbox full of online teaching techniques that facilitate and enhance the proven teaching

principles and traditional classroom activities.

The e-learning platform of the project provides courses in four different languages: English,

Bulgarian, German and Romanian. Each course has a specific structure and contains both static

materials in a variety of formats (written, images, sounds, videos) and also active materials such as

online quizzes, evaluation feedback, assignment submission, news and announcements.

For this course the target groups and potential beneficiaries are kinesithepists professionals or

students, graduates of high school that want to train in this field. The target sectors are: health and

tourism education, non-governmental associations.

Because this is an international project, effective communication is essential. For this, the

website of the project contains:

a public interface, designed for target group and potential users providing useful information on the project and links to representative organizations;

a private section (partners section) for internal use and communication. This website contribute to achieve the project objectives by offering a gateway for

information on European e-learning training programmes and also a communication, management

and dissemination tool. It helps to evaluate a feedback from users and open public by using on line

questionnaires.

14 - th EUROPEAN CONFERENCE E-COMM-LINE 2013, Bucharest , September 24, 2013

The potential beneficiaries of this product are: kinesitherapists, physiotherapy students, Web

designers, health educators, stakeholders, wellness and SPA professionals, medical centers, and

hotels from health resorts. The target sectors are health and tourism education-continuous wellness

training.

In this way we assure that the outcomes are really based on beneficiaries needs. Also

presentation of best practices can be of real value in providing information for decision makers and

other key persons involved in e-learning for health and tourism education.

Acknowledgements:

The authors acknowledge the financial support from LLP-LdV-ToI-201-RO-022/2011-1-

RO1-LEO05-15314 project, e-Training for Wellness in SPA Services / e-TRAWELSPA.

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