Following its participation in the MEDFORIST Project, a three-year initiative sponsored by the European Union to set up a Euro-Mediterranean Network of ICT teachers specialising in applications for Trade and Industry, ITS has set up the Centre for E-Learning Technologies (CELT).

Computer based approaches to teaching and learning have been a feature of curriculum development for the past thirty years. Following a considerable investment in teacher and student workstations over the past few years, the Institute of Tourism Studies has now embarked upon the second natural phase in its strategy, with the established goal of increasing the awareness and application of information and communications technologies as educational tools.

Aims and Objectives

The aims and objectives of CELT are:

• To create and maintain a centre of excellence for e-learning and computer based learning with special emphasis on their use in the Tourism Industry, at the ITS;
• To develop courseware and software systems to support teaching and learning;
• To carry out research into e-learning and computer based learning techniques;
• To teach and promote the use of e-learning and computer based learning;
• To promote the creation of the information society.

CELT sets out to improve dissemination and networking with others in the field towards its own improvement, for the sharing of work carried out, to obtain feedback and stimulate debate. CELT particularly welcomes international collaboration and the challenges this brings to its work.

CELT's research and development interests are varied and include: Distance-Learning, interface design, cultural adaptation and multimedia.

The Centre for E-Learning Technologies also hosts ten multimedia work stations and a Mac OS video-editing station together with digital video and still cameras as well as other equipment necessary for the production of animated features.

ITSELNET

The ITS eLearning site, ITSELNET, is being developed as part of the MEDFORIST Project funded by the European Commission under the EUMEDIS Initiative. The objective of the Project is to build a Mediterranean Network of teachers in the field of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) applied to trade and industry. Through this site the Institute of Tourism Studies provides on-line learning opportunities for its students, and will eventually include opportunities for on-line workers for external students.