Ahead of the Curve: IAEA Experts Leverage Digital Communications to Enhance Education Networks in Asia and the Pacific

The efforts to establish, maintain and improve the ANENT portal are facilitated by the ongoing regional TC project. Yearly coordination meetings organized by the Agency in 2016 and 2017 resulted in new ideas, policies and initiatives in the area of nuclear education, and these ideas were eventually implemented via the ANENT platform. During a 2018 meeting, participants recognized that despite the growth and use of the platform, more frequent collaboration would be essential. As a result, the implementation of the project went entirely digital, and meetings became virtual and monthly, rather than face-to-face on a yearly basis.  

Since 2018 December, 14 structured web conference meetings of ANENT coordinators of participating countries have been conducted, all with the goal of accelerating the creation of new learning resources that can be used by university professors and training coordinators in the region to prepare a new generation of nuclear scientists for their future responsibilities.

In March 2020, when the impact of social distancing meant that communities around the world had to quickly turn to alternative means of communication, this ongoing project already had its remote meeting space. Despite the turbulence of international events, the project participants continued to focus on the ongoing development of the ANENT web- portal and the regional learning management system and the organization of e-learning courses, outreach materials, and the promotion of the Internet Research Reactor Laboratory, a platform which allows nuclear engineering students and young specialists, often from countries without research reactors, to participate in live reactor experiments and develop practical reactor physics experience. The Internet Research Reactor is hosted by the Kyung Hee University in Seoul and is currently in use by educators at universities in Mongolia, the Philippines and Azerbaijan.

The coordination facilitated by the ongoing virtual conferencing has allowed more than 70% of the participating countries to develop and share new educational and training resources remotely, and has helped more than half of those countries to contribute outreach materials to the network. Fifty outreach materials from 14 countries are currently available for use through ANENT, and 14 e-learning courses are currently hosted in the LMS. Moreover, 26 TC fellows from 11 Member States have been provided with one-month fellowships to learn how to create high-quality, interactive e-learning content, multiplying the number of nuclear education materials available at the national level.

Organized to the same professional standard as a ‘real-world’ meeting—complete with the requisite agenda, minute-taking and after-action reporting—the project’s virtual conferences have led to a significant growth in the learning resources available to the ANENT network, and have allowed the project to continue unabated throughout the COVID-19 virus outbreak.

[1] RAS0075, ‘Networking for Nuclear Education, Training, and Outreach Programmes in Nuclear Science and Technology in the Framework of ANENT (Asian Network for Education in Nuclear Technology)’