14th WMO Symposium on Education and Training

During the fight against the sudden outbreak of COVID-19, in line with the principle of "Class suspension but No Learning Suspension", based on the remote meteorological education platform and using Tencent Meeting, Padlet, Wechat, QQ and other tools, teaching activities have been elaborately designed such as "Warming up activities online", and online training courses haven been successfully held on modern meteorological business for college teachers. For the first time, this class has realized the change from offline training to online training. The training attracted 56 teachers from 25 colleges and universities, which is the largest number of participating colleges and students in history. New media such as thepaper.cn and the WeChat official account of China Meteorological Administration have made in-depth reports on the teaching situation, which has attracted wide attention in the profession.

Professor Liyao Zou

Chinese Meteorological Administration Training Center

College teachers; Modern meteorological business; Online training; Effect evaluation

Sharing the knowledge on Oceans – WMO’s Earth System approach for Early Warning R Venkatesan1 and Sid Thurston2 1R. Venkatesan, National Institute of Ocean Technology Ministry of Earth Sciences, Chennai, India 2, NOAA Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing Program, USA The WMO/IOC are working towards cooperation and coordination between ocean and meteorological agencies nationally and internationally. Oceans play a major role in climate dynamics and climate change is having a profound impact on our oceans and marine life. There is a growing awareness in understanding the role that the oceans play as an integral part of the overall Earth system, across all timescales from those supporting operational weather and disaster prediction to global and regional climate. The WMO/IOC partnership embraces the applications of ocean observations in the Earth System approach, from understanding, modelling and forecasting the state and structure of the oceans, to better manage the threats, hazards, productivity and sustainability of the ocean environment in order to serve society. Understanding ocean processes is important in the context of developing an earth system approach for early warnings. The UN Ocean Decade (2021-30) provides an enhanced focus to develop science for the society and for the Least Developed Coastal nations and Small Island Developing State (SIDS) to address climate change risks and impacts from extreme weather events and sea level rise and to develop and implement nature-based solutions and benefit from the blue economy for site specific requirements. Further, the focus is on the development of robust and open processes, tools and infrastructure to synthesise user needs and assess system capability to deliver, in a platform independent manner. However, there are opportunities for a renewed focus on the Earth System approach through three important developments approved by the WMO Congress (Cg-Ext (2021)): the Unified Data Policy, the Global Basic Observing Network (GBON) and the Systematic Observations Financing Facility (SOFF) which will further enable the sharing of information from regional and national bodies. In order to expand and sustain global observations, capacity development and the sharing of knowledge and technical expertise are very important. WMO/IOC have been conducting various capacity development and educational activities through their respective regional bodies WMO Regional Associations (RAs) and IOC-GOOS Regional Alliances (GRA) and WMO/IOC Data Buoy Cooperation Panel (DBCP). The Capacity building, not only through training but by other forms such as education, interactions and through media in a sustained manner, is required with a focus on the growing base of traditional knowledge, Best Practices, Regional cooperation linked to policy on Earth System approach. Also, capacity development can cover new cost-effective technologies and upskilling of local populations for in-country technical maintenance, co-funding opportunity, public-private partnership and use of available data products. These efforts can result in emphasis the need to collect real time data The capacity building to enhance technical and social capability comes at a time when society is increasingly realizing that global change is one of the greatest challenges it faces, both currently and in future. To adapt to this changing world, we must share the knowledge and support each other at the national, regional and global level to deepen our scientific understanding of natural systems. The Earth System approach will provide the future foundation to support this.

Dr R Venkatesan

National isntitute of Ocean technology

WMO Capacity development Oceans

One must admit that it is difficult to measure the impact of training. Although we managed to conduct a successful training, there is always still a gap between competency and performance. Nowadays we are facing with the need to shift the paradigm from training to learning; from experience to experiment, and from isolated learning process to integrated learning and organizational processes

Action Learning is a process that involves a small group working on real problems, taking action, and learning as individuals, as a team, and as an organization. Action learning is not the same with training. There is no knowledge transfer from lecturer to participants in action learning . It is more a process where participants learn from each other and by working in the project. Here coaching plays an important role, in which all team members are encouraged to reveal their creative thinking and learn to be a good listener and also an examiner.

The poster will present a different approach in integrated learning within our organization. With Action Learning we bring learning to work instead of conducting learning activities in an isolated environment. The idea is how we can elevate learning through discussions and problem solving activities in these meetings. As a pilot project, we worked with 7 team members from BMKG’s Centre for Public Weather Services for six months, resulting in a new product of “Specific Services Platform with High Resolution”

Ms Noer Nurhayati

Indconesia Agency for Meteorology Climatology and Geophysics

Eumetcal is The EUMETNET Education and Training Collaborative Network of the National Meteorological Services and Partners within Europe. The goal of this collaboration is to increase the education and training opportunities for its members.

The Eumetcal 2 Programme Management Group supports the Eumetcal community to achieve the above stated goal through 1) The facilitation of collaborations 2) Running a Eumetcal Expert Centre with two major goals. First, offer a virtual space where the community can find answers to their everyday questions about education and training. Second, support members to overcome their challenges in transitioning their classroom training into online format. Through online formats, education and training programs be maintained in today’s world. 3) Providing the community with useful tools and with accompanied support, as they implement their training activities. 4) Fostering and supporting an active community of practice which shares knowledge across organisations to deliver high-quality and cost-effective training.

With all the activities mentioned above, The Eumetcal 2 programme Management Group aims to create a central place where: • members can easily share and exchange (e-) learning materials in which the learners are actively involved and which are aligned with the WMO Competency standards. • employees of Member States can enroll themselves to each other’s training courses • members can easily adapt the shared materials to meet their own needs and translate them into their own language, and offer it to their employees • members can find experts and/or organisations who will assist them in implementing their training activities in instances where there is no in-house knowledge or limited time

Simply put, with the Eumetcal 2 Programme we create a place where members can ask questions and find answers to all meteorological education and training related needs, so that they are able to accomplish the training goals of their organisations.

Heleen Pelkwijk ter

KNMI, Eumetcal Programme

The WMO Severe Weather Forecasting Programme (SWFP) is implemented in nine sub-regions of the world and it benefits over 80 developing countries, least developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing states (SIDS). Capacity development of the NMHSs through specialized training workshops is a salient feature of the programme. In 2021, five SWFP training workshops have been successfully conducted remotely online to provide training to over 175 operational forecasters of the NMHSs in seven SWFP sub-regions including Eastern Africa, West Africa and Central Africa in RA I; South Asia and SE Asia in RA II; Eastern Caribbean in RA IV; and South Pacific in RA V. Two of the workshops were jointly organized for South Asia and SE Asia sub-regions, and for West Africa and Central Africa sub-regions. SWFP workshops mainly focused on the interpretation and use of NWP products and satellite information and nowcasting tools to improve severe weather forecasting, impact-based forecast, communication of forecasts and delivery warning services. This was achieved through collaboration of several Global NWP centres, RSMCs and RTCs, and with support from the development partners and donors which contribute to SWFP implementation in various sub-regions. Multiple learning platforms and web portals were used for the remote delivery of SWFP workshops which generally consisted of the pre-requisite self-study modules, live ‘synchronous’ sessions including practical and/or end-of-course exercise (submission of case studies). During live ‘synchronous’ sessions of the SWFP training workshop for West and Central Africa sub-regions, simultaneous interpretation in both English and French languages were arranged for the participants. Selected self-studies modules (mainly on COMET/MetEd website) were also available in both English and French languages. Participants were encouraged to submit case studies on severe weather events in their home countries to apply the knowledge gained and techniques explored during the workshops. Internet connectivity was an issue in some countries. It was also observed that some participants did not make best use of the remote learning portals, potentially because they were not used to access to such portals, or they might be having limited experience of using it.

Ata HUSSAIN

WMO

SWFP, training, NMHSs

The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Academy is the research training advisory and coordination arm of the World Climate Research Program. Its mission is to equip current and future climate scientists with the knowledge, skills, and attributes required to tackle the world’s most pressing and challenging climate research questions. The Academy’s activities will promote and advance lifelong learning opportunities and global equity in climate science training. It will measure its success by the scope and diversity of the global climate research community that engages with the Academy as well as its ability to improve global access to high-quality climate science training and professional development without prohibitive costs to the trainee. The Academy is seeking to complement and collaborate with existing training initiatives around the world.

The objective of the Academy is to determine the requirements for climate research education and to build enabling mechanisms. One mechanism will be an online marketplace for climate science training, which connects climate scientists who are seeking training in a particular field with relevant training providers. The Academy will also identify training gaps and advocate for those needs to be met. This will be achieved through an annual climate training stocktake survey, aiming to keep track of and respond to the rapid changes we observe in the education and training space around climate variability and change.

This poster provides information on the WCRP Academy Climate Training Stocktake Survey 2021: https://www.wcrp-climate.org/academy-survey

We invite you to take part!

Dr. Angela Mahara

World Climate Research Programme

climate, education, training, science, academy, research

The COVID-19 pandemic...can be an impetus for digitalization of education in Sub-Saharan Africa.“

Online learning has the potential to ensure learners from all geographical regions have access to education, thereby addressing issues of inequalities and contributing toward Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4. The COVID-19 outbreak stimulated an outbreak of online learning in many institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, disparities in the access to digital infrastructure had a negative impact, with many teachers suffering from burnout and students lamenting limited information and communication technology (ICT) resources, inadequate access to affordable and reliable internet, power outages, and anxiety over academic outcomes. Despite the challenges, many institutions have developed novel technological innovations and inventions to bridge the digital divide in Sub-Saharan Africa. The review gives an overview of the challenges, prospects, and practical implications of online learning in the region in order to inform policymakers, educators, and researchers about the future of education in Sub-Saharan Africa. “Michael Agyemang Adarkwah”

On this topic, the poster provides a summary of a new experience of Online Training in RTC-Algeria for 14 WMO African members

Ahmed BOUZID

Hydro-meteorological Institute for Training and Research-IHFR, Oran, Algeria

NWP, Online Learning, Training

Extreme hydro-climatological events pose serious threats worldwide since anthropogenic climate change is now widely considered to have the potential not just to cause perturbations in the weather but also to create major discontinuities in many complex natural and human systems, including ecosystems, socio-economics, human settlements, and political institutions. Thus, water professionals need to be retrained in the proper estimation of the hydrological regimes in terms of their frequency and distribution as well as needs to meet up with appropriate hydrological system designing and planning criterion that addresses adequately the natural and human system appropriately. This is needful, if issues relating to aggravated climate dynamics and the growing per capita water demand is to address within the marked flow regime uncertainty and the ever-increasing demand for water, set against the background of degradation of the water resources both in terms of quantity and quality well the population is estimated to likely be double by 2025. Education and training of professionals in the field of Hydro-climatology most especially in the data-scare developing world on new technological approaches to data acquisition, and methods, in the understanding of hydrological sensitivity to the rapid climate change and variability model. This will go a long way to attain an effective and efficient hydrological system design criterion beyond the 20th century, in the River Niger transboundary river system. Hence, this study focuses on the prospects and constraints in the education and training of water professionals in sub-Saharan Africa to address the basic rapid change and hydrological sensitivity of the Niger River system.

Dr. Olusegun Adeaga <oadeaga@unilag.edu.ng>

University of Lagos, Nigeria

Hydro-climatological science, education, training , sub-Saharan Africa

The Flipped classroom is a new teaching mode in information environment, teachers provide teaching videos as the main form of learning resources, students complete teaching videos and other learning resources before class, teachers and students complete homework, Q & A, collaborative inquiry and interactive activities in the classroom. From existing researches of the flipped classroom, the basic process of teaching is that students read learning materials and resources—do exercises—teacher guide—summary. When applied the Flipped classroom in the vocational training, we should consider how to present the knowledge, ability and value through the "video", how to reasonably allocate and effective joint class time and after class time in the training, how to connect training class with the network classroom, how to overcome the limitations of reliability and validity of the training content, mode and evaluation. The article mainly focuses on four aspects of the Flipped classroom. These are what the Flipped classroom is; The role and effect of the Flipped classroom; How to implement Flipped classroom in vocational training and adult education; The restrictions and challenges of implementing the Flipped Classroom.

Jinfang HOU

China Meteorological Administration Training Centre

The Flipped classroom, Blended- learning, Vocational training, Training process

During the past months RTC Argentina hosted two important events which were connected and had a positive impact in the Spanish speaking training community. The second edition of the WMO Train the Trainers course in Spanish, organized by the three components of RTC Argentina in close collaboration with WMO had 55 participants from 10 different Latin American countries. CALMET XIV Conference had 259 participants from 55 countries. Participants from Train the Trainers course spent a week at CALMET XIV interacting and learning from a worldwide community of trainers, and having the advantage of simultaneous interpretations of live sessions, kindly provided by WMO. The evaluation of the events showed that the participants reacted positively to an “open mind approach “ and willingness to adapt and incorporate new delivery modes, learning resources and training technologies. Train the Trainer course offered many opportunities to share personal and institution experiences and needs. At the beginning of the course participants were invited to work out a Training Development Plan in groups that shared similar training needs. As a result several international teams were formed. This flexibility to work with new colleagues and the bond created throughout the course proved to be relevant elements to create an active regional training network, including both NHMS and associated institutions, which is necessary for collaboration to develop. Thus, Train the Trainers becomes a method for identifying local and regional training needs and preparing TDPs which can be delivered by the Regional Training Network to all members. Joining efforts to deliver regional training will highly benefit all countries: - more highly trained experts will be available to all the region, - efforts would not be duplicated , but refocused to cover more training needs and reaching out to more personnel. -both human and technological resources will be optimized - working together helps institutions comply with international standards required by WMO. On the other hand, in the past 2 years many institutions contributed in building a global education and training community , keeping with the WMO Global Campus Initiative: many resources became freely available online, and lots of training opportunities have been offered globally. In 2018 , after Symet XIII, the first steps towards a Global Campus vision of sharing and collaboration were agreed by the 6 Iberoamerican RTCs during a meeting in Lima, Peru . Much has evolved since then but still coordination among RTCs in Regions III and IV needs to unfold.

Professor Moira Doyle

RTC ARGENTINA - (Univ Buenos Aires, Servicio Meteorológico Nacional, Fac. Ciencias Hídricas)

Train de Trainers, Regional Network, CALmet

Beginning with the first international conference in 1993, the purpose of CALMet has been to offer forums to share experiences, expectations and new ideas for applying emerging technologies and strategies in education and training to support meteorology, hydrology and related fields. CALMet organises face-to-face and online conferences plus provides opportunities for information and idea exchange through a website and social media.

This year’s CALMet XIV was kindly hosted by Servicio Meteorológico Nacional, Argentina. Due to the pandemic and the worldwide travel restrictions we had to organise this conference in a fully virtual environment. We have chosen for a 'flipped-learning' approach. This meant that all conference material was available for the participants to explore some time before the Conference started. During the Conference week, Monday 27 September to Friday 1st of October 2021, we dedicated a limited amount of time to live plenary sessions format and had asynchronous forums and online opportunities for social interactions with the help of the web tool, Wonder.

CALMet brings together educators, trainers and managers from universities, research institutions, and National Meteorological and Hydrological Services. This year, the CALMet XIV Theme was “Bringing Together the Best of Online to Learning” and the outreach of this conference was enormous compared to previous CALMet Conferences. During this conference, 259 people from 55 countries logged into our Conference Moodle environment and took part in the programme. We had five wonderful days of active interaction in 14 live sessions and over 40 discussions going on in the discussion forums around the forced switch from classroom to online sessions, providing multilingual training, providing training for people in climate services, to observers and people providing extreme weather forecasts and training people with the help of simulators. Next to that there were be some plenary sessions on pedagogical topics which were very useful to us all.

This poster will tell you more about CALMet and this year's online CALMet XIV Conference Event.

Heleen ter Pelkwijk

CALMet, Inspire, Share, Collaborate

The WMO Marine Services Course is offered in two phases: an online phase where participants assess their organization’s marine services capabilities, and a face-to-face phase for follow-up on ways to implement improvements. The Course provides a framework for participants to compare their marine services to the WMO’s standards and guidelines, and to highlight areas in need of improvement. It uses the WMO’s Strategy for Service Delivery with a keen focus on implementing a customer-centric service. Innovation in the Course Design with blended learning: Given that forecasters have around-the-clock work schedules, they cannot take long absences for training. The benefit of providing an online phase is that forecasters can participate in Phase One of the Course without the impacts of travel. The Second, face-to-face Phase, which is planned to take place approximately a year later, provides a venue for addressing and sharing service improvement challenges, and for greater networking with colleagues from other organizations. With blended learning, the cost of running the program has been significantly reduced. The statistics from the Marine Services Course for the Pacific Islands (Aug to Oct 2021), have shown that the total cost per participant, to facilitate the First (online) Phase is on average $1000 and for the Second (face to face) Phase, is an estimated $6000 with travel. Considering the Course duration (2-4 months calendar time) and the depth of materials it covers, the cost is minimal. Innovation in attaining the desired outcomes: Primary outcomes of the Course are a broad analysis of participating organizations’ marine services, as well as detailed analyses of several service areas leading to the development of a service improvement plan. In addition, the course fosters regional networking, international cooperation, and integrating a customer-centric approach to service delivery. It attains these outcomes using several innovative learning experiences. The Phase One online component is designed as an extended workshop. Participants are actively engaged in creating evaluative documentation of their organization’s services while delving deeply into the WMO guidelines and standards. Rarely do forecasters have the opportunity to read WMO documentation and apply the knowledge therein directly to their current forecast environment. And, rarely is there an opportunity to take a critical look at one’s organization and formally work with colleagues and managers to propose improvements. The Course also offers an excellent opportunity to network with regional NMHSs. Throughout the Course, participants share assignments and experiences through forum discussions in the context of regionally relevant case studies. In addition, with the use and focus on the WMO’s Strategy for Service Delivery, participants increase their awareness, both individually and as an organization, on the benefits of integrating a customer-centric approach into their day-to-day operations.

Note that while the course was designed in the context of marine services, the framework and approach can easily be refocused for use in developing improvement plans for any service area.

Ms. NaYeon Kim

Marine Services Division; Educational Training Division

Capacity Development, Marine Services, Innovation, Online Learning, Blended Learning, WMO guidelines

Since November 2020 an international consortium comprising the University of Helsinki (Grant Coordinator of the Project), University of Rovira i Virgili (Spain), Estonian University of Life Sciences, six Ukrainian universities: Odessa State Environmental University (National Project Coordinator), Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture, O.M. Beketov National University of Urban Economy in Kharkiv, Lviv Polytechnic National University, Bila Tserkva National Agrarian University, Odessa National Medical University, and two ministries – Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and Ministry of Energy and Environment Protection of Ukraine has been implementing the European educational project of ‘Multilevel Local, Nation- and Regionwide Education and Training in Climate Services, Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation – ClimEd’, 619285-EPP-1-2020-1-FI-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP. The project objective is to develop competence-based curricula for continuous comprehensive training of specialists in the field of climate services in Ukraine as well as to initiate and develop additional education in the field of climate change for decision-makers, specialists in climate-dependent sectors of the economy and the wider public to become contributive to stabilization of the country's economy in the face of climate change and adaptation to its consequences. To provide for achievement of the stated above the project consortium has consistently been implementing the following tasks: 1) Development of a competence-based concept for professional education in the field of climate services and additional education for specialists in climate-dependent sectors of the economy in Ukraine, with the recommendations from the WMO and the existing European experience in this area taken due account of. 2) Development of educational and teaching materials, elaboration of distance learning and blended courses to provide for methodological support for continuous and comprehensive professional training of specialists in the field of climate services in Ukraine. 3) Development of blended courses in the field of climate change and adaptation to its consequences for decision-makers along with massive open online courses in the same area for specialists in climate-dependent sectors of the Ukrainian economy. 4) Development of massive open online courses in the field of climate change and adaptation to its consequences for the wider public in Ukraine in line with the concept of lifelong learning. Based on the framework of competencies for specialists in the field of climate services from WMO and its adjustment to the conditions of Ukraine, the developed strategies and plans for adaptation of various territories and sectors of the economy, the following is to be elaborated: Educational programmes for professional training at the Master and PhD levels as well as retraining of specialists working in the field of climate services, are focused on the pressing needs of various territories and sectors of the economy. Each educational programme is to include a course on the economics of climate change which focuses on assessing climate risks for various sectors in the economy and estimating uncertainty of climate prediction for various territories. In order to provide comprehensive and high-quality services to both various industries and segments of the population, a specialist has to have interdisciplinary competencies, as well as skills and abilities of a wide profile, which will be provided for in separate modules / courses in the field of fundamentals of sociology, economics and computer science. At the PhD level, based on the experience gained in course of performance of the EU educational project of ‘Integrated Doctoral Program for Environmental Policy, Management and Technology – INTENSE’, 586471-EPP-1-2017-1-EE-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP, an intersectoral doctoral school in the field of Climate Services will be created. Blended and massive open online courses for decision-makers and specialists in climate-dependent areas as well as specialists of municipal and business structures, which is to enable these categories of users to correctly take into account climate information to determine and study the impacts of climate change, assess vulnerability to climate change and provide for assessment of climate risks, which will contribute to a more sustainable socio-economic development of the country as a whole. Most of the developed courses will be either online courses or contain an online constituent, which will allow implementation of a network form of educational programme introduction, which is to ensure involvement of highly qualified staff from various universities and will contribute to the continual improvement to the quality of education. A multi-level quality control system will be established to ensure the virtue of the climate education system on a continuous basis. To secure that the developed climate education system meets the present day needs of the national labor market and international standards, advisory councils, consisting of representatives of stakeholders at the local, national and international levels, will be formed and entrusted with the implementation of monitoring and regulatory functions. Introduction of a trans- and interdisciplinary climate education system with the assimilation of best European practices is to facilitate the launch of several connected self-sustaining cycles (virtuous circles), which will ensure continuous improvement of the quality of the climate education system, as well as guarantee its economic efficiency and sustainability. Implementation of the climate education system by Odessa State Environmental University and other Ukrainian partners is to shape up several external virtuous circles to embrace all levels of societal functioning: from awareness of the population of the consequences of climate change and support on its part for the introduction of measures of adaptation to climate change to stabilize work in the climate-dependent sectors and the country's economy as a whole. Internal virtuous circles are to be determined by the interaction of academic institutions, institutions of the Hydrometeorological Service of Ukraine with the Odessa State Environmental University and will contribute to an increase in economic benefits, modernization of the scientific-and-technical base and improvement to the quality of education.

Professor Sergiy Stepanenko

Odessa State Environmental University

climate services, climate education and training, climate change adaptation and mitigation

Four WMO NWP blended training courses were successfully held in 2021 for the first online phase. Cooperation is key in the organizaition in this rapid changing era. Working together and sharing experiences are throught out the planning and implementation. The goal is to development and make progress together. The way and method of why, what and how will be shared in the poster.

Ms. Hong FAN

World Meteorological Organization

cooperation, blended training, sharing

Romanian Air Trafic Services Administration - ROMATSA has, since almost 20 years, its own Training Centre for Aeronautical Meteorology - TCAeM. All the AMPs have to through training and assessment every 2 years, în order to maintain their competencies (as described in WMO documents), or to develop further competencies. Before 1st of March 2019, the courses were F2F, but due to pandemic restrictions both training and assessment had to go mostly online, with a few exceptions of blended courses. The poster is about the challenges, oportunities and new approaches the TCAeM trainers had to accommodate in these COVID 19 pandemic era.

Mr. Alexandru Hozoc

Romanian Air Traffic Services Administration - ROMATSA

Competencies, online

The COMET Program, a part of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) has over 30 years of experience in creating and delivering education and training in meteorology and hydrology. COMET has extensive experience in delivering online and in-person training courses. Evaluation has been a large part of these activities through a variety of methods including pre- and post-tests, student surveys, and informal feedback from sponsoring agencies. More recently, COMET collaborated with WMO in using the Brinkerhoff’s Success Case Method to evaluate the impact of training by studying case examples of success to determine what aspects of the training provided the greatest impact to help other training groups analyze the effectiveness of their training efforts. These evaluation services are continuing to expand and utilize expertise of the COMET staff.

COMET’s classroom courses have expanded to include initial forecaster training and development of BIP-M level competencies. With the pandemic, these courses moved to online and blended learning methods of training delivery. A flipped classroom approach has been used with video lectures recorded days or weeks prior to the course. English subtitles have been added to assist the less English-fluent participants and online polling questions were embedded. Live sessions with the students focused on applications of the topics covered in the lectures with hands-on case studies and current weather scenarios. As technology has evolved, COMET has taken advantage of options that include more interactive engagement of students, closed captioning, and automated simultaneous interpretation of the presentations given in English. The poster will provide examples of innovative training methods that were developed to meet the virtual training challenges during the pandemic.

Dr Elizabeth Page

The COMET Program

Severe wind hazard caused by tropical cyclones (TC) is among the most devastating hydrometeorological hazards that contribute to loss of lives and damages to infrastructure. Risk calculation tools like the Severe Wind Estimation of Risk using Vulnerability and Exposure (SWERVE), enable disaster risk managers to estimate the impacts of TC-induced severe wind. This study aims to utilize the tool for post-evaluation of scenario-based wind hazard assessment in the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) through the development of e-SWERVE online learning modules. This will provide invaluable information to emergency managers involved in relief and recovery phases. Two short courses on the creation of severe wind hazard data and risk assessment calculation were developed through planning assessment and activities based on identified learning outcomes. In these courses, participants were introduced to the Tropical Cyclone Risk Model (TCRM) developed by Geoscience Australia and simulated deterministic TC-induced severe wind scenarios using the model. The e-modules also discussed how the generated hazard information can be utilized as input to the SWERVE tool in estimating the number of affected population, number of damaged houses, and economic cost of damages. Collaboration with key experts and end-users was conducted to evaluate the content of the e-modules, which later on served as the basis of the learning videos and activities uploaded to a blended learning platform (i.e. Google Classroom). The platform resulted in a significant increase in the knowledge of participants in the creation of severe wind hazard and risk assessment. Furthermore, the utilization of a blended learning approach strengthened the understanding of participants in the use of TC modeling tools and programs amidst challenges posed by limited face-to-face courses.

Mr. John Carlo R. Lambrento

Department of Science and Technology - Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration

learning modules, severe wind hazard, risk assessment, online learning

The Flash Flood Guidance System (FFGS) is used in over 60 countries worldwide, providing the capability of issuing flash flood early warnings to about three billion people. The FFGS project was launched in 2009 and is supported by four partners: World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Hydrologic Research Center (HRC) and the U.S. Agency for International Development-Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (USAID/BHA).

Since then, this initiative has been providing extensive training to hydrologists, meteorologists and disaster managers around the world on the use of FFGS.

To effectively transition from a formerly in-person or hybrid learning approach to a fully online one during the Covid-19 pandemic, WMO and project partners developed and published the electronic learning FFGS Training platform, a one-stop shop for FFGS trainers and trainees to access distance learning resources from home, including the hands-on training material, FFGS Simulators for operational forecasters, regional forums, case studies and online courses related to flash flood forecasting and early warning system. The training resources were developed by various individuals, projects and organizations.

This pandemic has highlighted the importance of expanding e-learning opportunities, to ensure that no one is left behind. Learners have freedom to access the FFGS Training platform anytime and anywhere, irrespective of challenges such as the pandemic outbreak.

The first assessment showed that the training platform provides the following: (i) Greater access to training for a broader audience, especially for those who live far from the training location or experience restricted mobility; (ii) Opportunity for trainers and trainees to revisit the training material later on for a refresher; (iii) Reduced training costs for the organization of the training events; (iv) Time saved from reduced traveling to training locations; (v) Training content can be updated more readily and shared with participants; (vi) Increased familiarity among trainees and trainers with a broader range of training materials and technologies; (vii) Participants in self-paced distance learning are able to access training content at a time and in a location convenient for them.

On the other side, training without face-to-face classroom interaction is a still common challenge for all. Other challenges include handling technical issues and the lack of infrastructure (e.g., low-quality network connections) and the need for development of online teaching skills for the trainers. Despite widespread closures, the FFGS training program reached more than 1,000 hydrologists, meteorologists and disaster managers during the Covid-19 pandemic through a variety of distance approaches.

Knowing that the pandemic is ongoing and future waves could come, WMO and project partners continue to build the capacity of National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) to issue flash flood warnings and alerts, and by doing so, mitigate the adverse impacts of hydrometeorological hazards.

Together, partners are utilizing this opportunity to learn from the pandemic and reforms that transform learning systems to be more inclusive and responsive to the needs of all learners and trainers.

Ms. Petra Mutic

World Meteorological Organization (WMO)

Flash flood, Flash Flood Guidance System (FFGS), Online training, Covid-19 pandemic

International courses in physical classroom tend to be infeasible under the influence of epidemic diseases. Consequently, the transition of teaching activities to online events, which is advantageous in reducing transportation and other expenses, has been acknowledged as an effective and practical solution. The CMA Moodle Learning Management System was created in 2018, and has been effective for meteorological international online training courses held by CMATC in responding to the challenges of COVID-19 since 2020. This poster summarizes the general situation of online practices of international courses held by CMATC, and lessons learnt in adapting classroom learning to online.

Mr JI WENBIN

China Meteorological Administration Training Centre (CMATC)

International, Online Training, Moodle, transition

Dr Viacheslav Manukalo

Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Institute, Kyiv; Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv

The Erasmus+ ClimEd (2021-2023; http://climed.network; “Multilevel Local, Nation- and Regionwide Education and Training in Climate Services, Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation”) project is aimed at development of competency-based curricula for continuous comprehensive training of specialists in the field of climate services and additional education in climate change for decision-makers, experts in climate-dependent economic sectors, and public. The ClimEd Trainings (http://climed.network/events/climed-trainings), in total 7, will be carried out during project and will be focused on training the faculty/ teaching/ research staff and postgraduates at the ClimEd partner institutions and collaborating organizations in advanced educational and information-and-communication technologies for building a flexible multi-level integrated practice-based education system in the field of Climate Services, Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation. Due to covid pandemic situation, the originally planned face-to-face first trainings (in Estonia, Ukraine, and Finland) were converted into online training. Such online trainings were divided into 3 consecutive blocks: (i) online lecturing, (ii) home-work-assignments (HWAs) as group projects with established internal communication between the member of the groups and with an option of zoom-consulting during remote work, and (iii) final oral presentations (projects’ defences) of HWAs with evaluation and feedbacks, discussions, and awarding certificates (corresponding to ECTS credits) with achieved learning outcomes. The majority of HWAs is based on the ClimEd main themes linking climate change vs. agriculture, energy, technical design and construction, urban economy, water management, health-care; although other themes of interest can be selected by groups. Trainings also include questionnaires distributed among participants: evaluation of the training, and evaluation of own learning outcomes. Technically, the Moodle system, Zoom-hosting, e-evaluations, etc. are actively utilized in such trainings. All materials of the trainings are always publicly accessible online at the ClimEd project website as well as long-term stored at the Moodle system for each training. The outcomes – including the lecture topics and learning outcomes, information resources, themes of group projects, feedbacks and training results, established network-community of the training participants (trainees and lecturers and teachers of HWAs) – of the online training approach will be presented for the ClimEd 1st training “Competence-Based Approach to Curriculum Development for Climate Education”; 19 Apr – 12 May 2021; http://climed.network/events/climed-trainings/climed-training-1-online); 2nd – “Adaptation of the Competency Framework for Climate Services to conditions of Ukraine” (29 Jun – 26 Aug 2021; http://climed.network/events/climed-trainings/climed-training-2-online); and 3rd – “Digital tools and datasets for climate change education” (26 Oct – 12 Nov 2021; http://climed.network/events/climed-trainings/climed-training-3-online).

Valeriay Ovcharuk

1 University of Helsinki, Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research, (UHEL-INAR), Helsinki, Finland 2 Odessa State Environmental University (OSENU), Odessa, Ukraine 3 Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture (KNUCA), Kyiv, Ukraine 4 Estonian University of Life Sciences (EULS), Tartu, Estonia 5 Jagiellonian University in Krakow (JUK), Krakow, Poland 6 Lviv Polytechnic National University (LPNU), Lviv, Ukraine 7 Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), Helsinki, Finland 8 Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Institute (UHMI), Kyiv, Ukraine

climate, training, educaton, online

Following Cg-18, WMO embarked on reform of its structure, programme and Secretariat. In the spirit of this reform exercise, there is the need to move toward a more coherent and effective delivery of the WMO Education and Training Programme at the global level. The WMO Education and Training Programme is currently challenged by changes in workforce numbers, profiles and roles; expansion of existing and new services within NMHSs; gaps in the level of available training resources between Members; the need for new pedagogical approaches to meet competency standards; the introduction of many new training strategies, technologies and delivery methods that promise to be more efficient in meeting learning needs; and prevalent stresses to training budgets. Establishing and Education and Training Board to complement the work of the WMO Capacity Development Panel (CDP) will assist in building critical mass of support for ensuring technically sound, coherent, consistent and timely input of stakeholders towards the provision of desirable strategic direction for education and training activities in meteorology, hydrology and related environmental disciplines. Consequently, it will constitute a viable ground for minimization of duplication, to complement efforts, maximize impacts, and enhancing cost-effective use of resources.

The overall objective of the WMO Education and Training Board is to strengthen coordination and sustainability of education and training efforts by providers on meteorology, hydrology and related environmental disciplines, to meet the growing needs of Members. The Education and Training Board is not intended to have legislative authority, but rather be a sounding entity formed by education and training providers, with the view of having a structured platform for discussion and sharing of ideas that can contribute to improving capacity development.

The concept of an WMO Education and Training Board stems in part from the WMO Global Campus initiative which is based upon WMO's tried and tested practice of linking Members’ existing facilities to create a coordinated, distributed network from the existing specialist WMO-related education and training institutions. As with other WMO networking initiatives such as observations and communications, the Global Campus establishes a network the disparate institutions and defines a mechanism for collaboration that allows sharing of education and training resources and knowledge. An underlying premise is ensuring that all Members can contribute to, and benefit from, the proposed networking arrangements.

Luciane Veeck

WMO Education and Training Office

Education, Training, Board

(Note: This poster is a set of self-contained slides that can be read as a poster)

Open Badges are a widely used, flexible method for issuing online “micro-credentials” that can demonstrate accomplishments, development of skills, recognized qualities, and potentially even interests. They can be used to demonstrate the growing achievements that an individual accomplishes in both formal and informal contexts. They provide both motivation and a way to signal otherwise unrecognized accomplishments. In universities around the world, Open Badges are being adopted for demonstrating the developed skills and general competencies that underlie a diploma or a still ongoing educational experience. They are also being used in continuing professional development contexts. For the WMO Global Campus initiative, we propose that Open Badges can be a method of demonstrating development of the competencies and skills related to WMO competency standards. This poster will define and demonstrate badges, pose challenges for implementation in WMO contexts, and suggest some initial and potential future uses.

Patrick Parrish

WMO Education and Training Office

micro-credentials, open badges, competencies, WMO competencies, assessment

Evaluating training is an important part of the training cycle, helping to identify areas for training improvement. Conducting more thorough evaluations that also investigate the impact of training on job performance is important. This part of the evaluation is quite often left out of post-training evaluations, making it difficult to judge the impact of training on organizations and the services they provide. During times of rapid change, when many innovations are introduced, measuring and qualifying the types of impact become even more important. In 2016, WMO and the RTCs of Italy (IBE) and Niger (AGRYHMET) began a 4-year capacity development project (PACC-RRC) to help improve climate services for the agricultural sector in 17 countries of West Africa. The project included four blended-learning courses and one fully online course hosted by the RTCs, as well as a Networking Event attended primarily by Directors of the NMHSs of the target countries. As a closing project activity, it was decided to investigate the impacts of the training on the job performance and outcomes of the participants who attended the training events. For this evaluation the Success Case Method (SCM) was chosen as a well-established, effective, but relatively low-effort evaluation approach. The method supports evaluations that must be accomplished in tight time constraints, such as this project-closing evaluation. In this poster we briefly describe our experience of using the SCM method for training impacts evaluation, presenting some details on how the process took place over several steps, including (1) identifying indicators of successful impacts, (2) designing a survey to elicit both reports of success and barriers to success, (3) analyzing the survey results to select a limited number of participants for follow up interviews, (4) conducting interviews, (5) analysis of the interview results, and (6) generating an evaluation report. When presenting our experience using the SCM for the evaluation of training impacts of PACC-RRC in the recent CALMET XIV Conference, we learned there is a growing interest to conduct impact evaluation of training in our community. One of the outcomes of our discussions in the conference was the suggestion of building a network of evaluators, so that we can continue exchanging ideas about our experiences and also support each other when conducting impact evaluations. With this suggestion in mind, we invite you to join us in a conversation about ‘evaluating the impacts of training and building a network of support’. Please use the “Join the Discussion” button and let us know if having such a network would be valuable for you and your organization. Your comments and suggestions on how to support this idea will be welcome.

Luciane Veeck

1. WMO-ETR Office, 2. Meteo France, 3. WMO-Retired, 4. Brinkerhoff Institute, Western Michigan University, 5. The COMET Program, 6. IBE, 7. AGRHYMET