Article
citation information:
Miron, E.L.,
Nagy, D., Gherman, L., Marinov,
M. Systems
for aerial surveillance and security
– a step forward for air force academies. Scientific Journal of Silesian University of Technology. Series
Transport. 2020, 106, 123-130.
ISSN: 0209-3324. DOI: https://doi.org/10.20858/sjsutst.2020.106.10.
Ecaterina-Liliana MIRON[1],
Daniela NAGY[2], Laurian
GHERMAN[3],
Marin MARINOV[4]
SYSTEMS
FOR AERIAL SURVEILLANCE AND SECURITY
– A STEP FORWARD FOR AIR FORCE ACADEMIES
Summary. This paper is a report in brief of the project that
“Henri Coanda” Air Force Academy, in
collaboration with partners from Poland and Bulgaria, carried out under the
aegis of the Erasmus + program of the European Union by the end of 2018. The
project was called Systems for Aerial Surveillance and Security (SASS). The
project proposed the initiation of a process of uniformisation
of competences necessary for the people involved in the field of aviation,
namely obtaining a joint study plan for pilots, air traffic controllers, and
air surveillance officers [3]. It opened the way for cooperation between the
Air Force Academies that began a joint semester of study. Achieving the
objectives of the project meant introducing an online teaching/learning system
based on an e-learning platform. The e-learning features have been fully
utilised through the introduction of a videoconference system that allows
teaching/learning activities for professors/students at a distance. The
completion of the project was carried out by evaluating the results obtained at
different stages. The analysis was based on the feedback from the main
target groups - students, teachers and beneficiaries of the graduates. Two
periods of teacher and student mobility were required for evaluation and
analysis. The students’ and teachers' opinions on the implementation of
the curriculum by means of the e-learning platform were analysed in detail.
Keywords: distance learning,
e-learning, Erasmus project, evaluation, strategic partnership, videoconference
system
1. INTRODUCTION
Whether it is about national
security, education or the economic environment, Eastern European countries
have to constantly adapt their public policies and update their defence systems to the demands imposed by the various
international organisations. This happens because
joining the NATO and the European Union have been important desiderates.
As a result, each of these
countries has passed and is still undergoing transformations that are felt in
its own military structures. The modernisation of the
existing technical systems in the military structures and the efficient use of
the already existing technology within NATO require a change of mentality in
the future graduates of military education.
The project proposed:
- teaching/learning modalities
in the context of international cooperation between military academies and
civil universities,
- modalities of
professional development and improvement of skills for using new equipment and
technologies in defence systems,
- shaping the psychological and
moral behaviour by accepting multiculturalism in the
context of multinational missions.
In the context of the military and
civilian cooperation, it is necessary to modify the concept of military
education and bring it to line with the standards in civilian education. This
process is a tough one and at “Henri Coanda”
Air Force Academy, it has been initiated by considering a strategy for the
institution’s modernisation. As a consequence
of AFAHC education’s opening to various
European programs, it has proposed to develop an education plan in cooperation
with the War Study University of Poland and Vasil Levski
National Military University in Bulgaria, under the aegis of Erasmus +.
2. PROJECT’S
RESULTS AND OUTCOMES
From the point of view
of universities of military profile, the labour
market is divided into:
1. The
civilian labour market specific to the field of
aerial surveillance and defence, hereby mentioned.
2. The
military labour market, which although in the
international context is always actual, is continuously diminishing and reorganising.
The project started from
the idea of uniformising the competences of the
military students (future pilots, air traffic controllers, radar
and air defence officers) with the competences of the
graduates of the civil universities in the same field of activity. This was the
end goal of the project and it took into account the air laws that are specific
to each environment, military or civilian, in which an activity takes place.
Other aspects that were
taken into account were: the amount of information and the speed of change in
equipment and technology in any field of activity, the need for professional
reconversion where needed.
Moreover, in the context
of the different alliances, one must consider the interaction between groups
belonging to various forms of training, as well as culture.
The activities were
carried out over two years and focused on two main directions:
- designing a curriculum
appropriate to the purpose of the project,
- upgrading the teaching/learning system
to reflect current realities.
The periods of
experience exchange, simply called mobilities were
achieved as an integral part of the project evaluation.
The design of the
curriculum (and the syllabus for each discipline) began by establishing the competencies
necessary for the aviation, security and defence
aviation employees. To establish these competences, it was taken into account
that the field of aviation, airspace management and security includes many
related specialisations [2]. The curriculum consisted
of six disciplines, the same number of disciplines is currently preserved, (and
related materials) that can be studied by pilots, air traffic controllers,
radar and meteorology officers.
The second development
direction of the project, which is the subject of this paper, consisted of the
accomplishment of a modern education tool in the civilian university
environment, namely, an e-learning platform and a videoconference system. Each
of the two directions has been developed in two steps, one for obtaining this
tool and the other for its evaluation.
3. ONLINE
SYSTEM
The e-learning platform
was designed to be simultaneously managed by the three universities
participating in the project.
For this reason, looking
at the main page of the platform, it can be noticed that each university has
its own section for which it has administrative rights. In each section, the
courses and information related to the six disciplines set forth in English
were uploaded and then translated into the official language of the country of
each university.
The decision to
translate the materials into the national language of the participant
universities was taken in view of an easier updating of materials and better
use by the students of each university.
In Figures 1-3, there
are presented captures of the platform from which its organisation
and the project-related materials can be observed.
Each university
contributed two specialists to the project, so the organisation
of the study plan in all three universities involved the permanent mobility of specialised professors between the three universities and
the parallel training of trainers. As a result, it was concluded that a
videoconference system was needed to allow the distance learning process.
By doing so, the
circumstance in which one of the professors could not carry out the teaching
activities at a given time and at a particular university was eliminated.
In Figure 4 are
presented captures at the time of checking the videoconference system, when
first used online, from the sites of two of the universities involved in the
project (first figure – AFAHC and the second
– WSU).
Fig. 1.
Capture of the platform managed by the three universities
Fig. 2.
Capture of the courses design for the plan of study
Fig. 3.
Capture of the lectures inside of the courses
The achievement of the
system implied the connection of the three universities through the platform,
by means of high-definition webcams.
Fig. 4.
Captures at the time of checking the videoconference system in 2 different
locations (AFAHC) and (WSU)
4. PROJECT
EVALUATION
The implementation of
this phase of the project was followed by a comparative analysis of the views
of the main target groups at the beginning and at the end of the project.
Self-evaluation took place at the end of a "blended mobility" period.
It consisted of two weeks of mobility in one of the partner universities and
two weeks of online courses on the platform. The evaluation was achieved
through satisfaction questionnaires completed at the end of the online courses
with surprising results with regard to the use of the e-platform.
The development of the
project has tried to make the most of the facilities offered by the e-learning
system. Thus, the last satisfaction questionnaire to which students and
teachers responded was made using the system created [1].
Students’ opinion
with regard to the use of online systems was different at the beginning and at
the end of the project and also different from teachers' opinion.
Figure 5 presents
students' views on the project at its inception.
In Figure 6 the opinions
of students and teachers at the end of the project are presented. The questions
about the e-learning platform that was created and how it was used by students
and teachers were:
1.
“How easy is it to use the e-learning platform of the SASS
project?”
2.
“Which of the following words would you use to describe the
project goals and the new method of teaching (e-learning and videoconference
system)?”
Respondents' opinions
differ from one target group to another.
The percentage of
students who consider a classroom teaching/learning system to be preferred was
higher than that of those who prefer the online system. They invoke the
advantage of interacting with teachers and colleagues, despite the existence of
videoconferencing (Figure 6a).
Professors have easily
accepted this online system, as can be seen in Figure 6c.
Regarding question 2,
the answers spread on the wide range, from High
quality to Impractical (Figure 6b).
Fig. 5.
Students’ opinion at the beginning of the project for two different
questions
|
|
|
|
Fig. 6a. The opinions of the students at the
end of the project (How easy is it to
use the e-learning platform?) |
Fig. 6b. The opinions of the students at the
end of the project (Which of the
following words would you use to describe the project goals and the new
method of teaching?) |
Fig. 6c.
The opinions of the teachers at the end of the project
Setting up the platform
has been an important project milestone.
The setting had to keep
record of:
- the achievement of the
project objectives in translating the whole project into Polish and Bulgarian,
- the need to administer the
platform (the window belonging to each university) by each university.
Thus, the use of the platform
has become more difficult, as it was noticeable in the answers of students and
teachers, where the same difference of opinion is observed. In Figure 7a (students) and Figure 7b
(teachers) are presented the answers of the two categories of respondents for
which pro represents the value 5 and against the value 1.
|
|
|
|
Fig. 7a. The students’ opinion after
the platform’ settings |
Fig. 7b. The teachers’ opinion after
the platform’ settings |
Because the final
beneficiaries, the players on the labour market, were
a target group of the project, their opinion was capitalised
during a multiplication event at the end of the project.
The participants in the
multiplication event responded affirmatively in a very large proportion (Figure
8) to the question "Do you think that the results and goals of this
project may help future graduates in their career?"
5.
CONCLUSION
1. If at the beginning of
the project, the percentage of respondents who thought the plan of study was
dedicated to the pilot’s specialisation, because
of the change of 1/3 of the students participating to the blended mobility,
that percentage changed in favour of air traffic
controllers (the first line in the figure below).
2. In the higher education
of the Air Force (at the level of the project – the three universities)
there is a gradual transition to the online environment but this type of
education in the military field (more practical) has a slow ascending trend,
unlike the civilian environment.
The opinion of the
target group formed by the final beneficiaries, employers of the future
graduates remained unchanged: it is necessary to introduce a study plan that
can ensure the formation of common competences in the field of aviation and the
creation of a modern learning and interconnection system with the partners.
Fig. 8.
Participants’ opinion for “Do
you think that the results and goals of this project may help future graduates
in their career?”
References
1.
2016-1-RO01-KA203-024511. Systems
for Aerial Surveillance and Security (SASS).
‘Henri Coandă’ Air Force Academy,
160 Mihai Viteazu, Brasov, Romania. 01.10.2016.
Available at: http://www.afahc.ro/ro/cercetare/sass.html.
2.
Burgess Thomas F.
2001. A
general introduction to the design of questionnaires for survey research.
Leeds: University of Leeds.
3.
Miron
Ecaterina-Liliana, Daniela Nagy, Laurian
Gherman, Marin Marinov.
2019. “General Overview of the Project Systems for Aerial surveillance
and Security”. Redefining
Community in Intercultural Context: 293-296. ‘Ismail Qemali’
University. 2-4 May 2019 Vlora,
Albania. ISSN
2285-2689.
4.
Regulation (EU) No 1288/2013 of the
European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2013 establishing
'Erasmus+': the Union programme for education,
training, youth and sport and repealing Decisions No 1719/2006/EC, No
1720/2006/EC and No 1298/2008/EC.
Received 08.10.2019; accepted in revised form 12.01.2020
Scientific
Journal of Silesian University of Technology. Series Transport is licensed
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