An Asia-wide realtime distributed hands-on workshop

E-learning has made possible to conduct trainings online. However, region-wide trainings that require hands-on practice still need lecturers and participants at the same location. This requires huge resources on travel budget, time, equipments and staff. This paper proposes a region-wide distributed model of realtime hands-on workshop using distance learning and remote virtualization environment. The proposed model was implemented for SOI Asia operator training during 22-26 August 2006 inviting 42 participants from 19 institutions in 10 Asian countries. The workshop proved to have significant reduces in travel budget, lab preparation time and equipments compared to ordinary workshop model held in the previous year. Feedbacks show 95% of the participants evaluated this workshop is effective for their future operations. Accordingly, this workshop model is practical and resource-optimized model for region-wide human resource development. This paper can be a useful information source for future development and improvement of region-wide remote workshops.