Disaster risk reduction education for international students through inter-university collaboration
This paper reports on a newly established Disaster Risk Reduction Education (DRRE) course at Nagoya University implemented in collaboration with Tohoku University, looking at some of the challenges and discussing available opportunities that could be leveraged in promoting adoption and delivery of DRRE to international students in Japanese institutions of higher learning.
Disaster Risk Reduction Education is a core pillar for reducing vulnerability and increasing capacity for dealing with disasters. Many international students coming to Japan have little or no prior DRRE exposure in their home countries. In order to empower international students to deal adequately with disasters, targeted DRRE effort is needed in higher education.
Key findings of the report include:
- Inter-university collaboration as a viable method for course delivery opening new opportunities for sharing of both human and material resources and reduction of effort duplication
- Field studies as essential for creating student connection with DRR, fostering greater involvement, and generally improving the course content and overall learning experience.
- Including practical projects and tasks with tangible outputs (e.g. disaster kit preparation) which serve to motivate and focus student engagement in the course.
- Embracing Information Technology. The Video Conference System served a central role in delivery of this collaborative course. However it is suggested that moving towards other online or hybrid course delivery methods should be pursued further in order to enhance the learning experience.