"ORION", a LEONARDO DA VINCI is a Pilot Project which aims to create a  'Virtual' Marine Environment Department which can deliver Open and Distance Learning (ODL) courses in a variety of languages.  ORION can be visited at www.orionnet.info.

This is the 4th Newsletter that reports progress and developments in this innovative project that is combining new technology and course delivery techniques, in a multilingual format, for distance learning in the marine environment. For more details on the background of ORION, see the    first ORION Newsletter.

ORION MEETINGS and PROGRESS

Since the last Newsletter, which reported on the ORION partners meeting in Cork (November 2002), a great deal of progress has been made - notably on course content and the Website design and operations.

Website

The ORION website was redesigned quite extensively, following the suggestions made by partners, and began pilot operations as a separate virtual marine science department on the 8th September 2003, although it had existed under the umbrella of the website of IMBC (www.imbc.gr) and Aquamedia (www.aquamedia.org) previously.

1. The Basic Level Language lessons appeared in the Language Courses Section, with self-tuition language lessons (available in English, Greek, Portuguese and Swedish) published for the use of all users.
2. The Library Resources Section was also redesigned, and the Meristics Reference material appeared in both English and Greek.
3. The Distributed network shell was ready in February 2003, and, as intended, is a restricted site accessible only to partners and registered users.

Course materials had already been prepared and were inserted by the course tutors over March, February and May.

Visits and evaluations

Ms Catherine Pons, on behalf of the project, participated in the LDV Language Project meeting in Brussels on 2nd June.

On 13th June, Mr Paddy Carpenter of Deloitte and Touche, made an evaluation visit to IMBC, where he looked at the progress of the language modules and made some suggestions, for instance, that the modules would benefit from having an audio section. He seemed very pleased with the concept and the way it was being executed, as can be seen from his immediate reaction. On July 21, the Interim Report was sent to the LDV Office in Athens and can be inspected here.

In September, the date of the next (postponed) Progress Meeting, the dedicated ORION website was inaugurated just before the meeting and by the end of the year had received beginning to look very lively and was receiving many visits (9938 visits to 23,574 pages).

ORION meetings

THE 3rd ORION Progress meeting was held on September 13-17 2003in the new premises of the Institute of Marine Biology of Crete at Gournes. Click below for the Meeting agenda and for the Minutes of the meeting, including participants.

• Agenda
• Minutes

ORION People

Foteini Pateraki, graphic designer in charge of the graphic design for the ORION project, obtained her first degree in Greece(degree in Graphics Art Technology) at the School of Graphic Arts and Art Studies in Athens in 1991. In 1992, she started work at Reading University, where she received the Postgraduate Diploma in Typography and Graphic Communication (Theory of Typography, History of Graphic Communication, Electronic Publishing, Text-Handling Systems, Letterforms, Visual Perception and Printing Methods). Ms Pateraki then went on to carry out further studies at the De Montfort University, Leicester, where she obtained an M.Sc. in Information and Graphic Design in 1996.

The specific subjects studied were to be very useful in the future: Communication and Presentation Skills, Information Technology and Computer Aided Design, Project Formulation and Planning, Design Management, Design Methodologies and Research, Marketing for Designers, Legality and Responsibility in Design, Information and Graphic Design Practice, Information Design Research, Audio and Visual Media. Her M.Sc. Dissertation entitled"A study into the design of an interactive information system for the public" has been put to good use in the ORION project.

During two years' employment in MediSense Ltd, Abingdon, England,as Desk Top Publishing Specialist for their European Marketing division, her main responsibilities were the generation and control of all electronic artwork for the company's European publications, including the follow-up of publications to final stage.

She has extensive in depth experience of all the main D.T.P. software for both PC's and Macintosh e.g.: QuarkXpress 5.0, Photoshop 6.0, DeskTop Scanning and digital Photography, Illustrator 9.0, Pagemaker 6.0, Freehand 9.0, Adobe Streamline, Suitcase 3.0, MasterJagler, Aldus Fetch 3.0 as well as Macromind Director, HyperCard and Authoreware. Wordperfect for DOS, Word for Windows, Microsoft Powerpoint, Microsoft Excel and the Interactive Multimedia software packages Guide 3.0 and Toolbook by Asymetrix.

She has had some experience in teaching, both in England and in Crete. Since 2001 She has been employed at the IMBC, where she is now also heavily involved in all desktop publishing for the new Hellenic Centre for Marine Science, as well as the new HCMR website.

Catherine Pons has worked as the senior assistant of the Secretariat of the FEAP (Federation of European Aquaculture Producers) since 2002. She obtained a first degree at the ECSEDI (Ecole de Secretariat de Direction) in Brussels (Belgium).

In 1992, she received the diploma of the European Secretary Academy, with a special mention in languages (for English, Spanish and Dutch). In order to improve her foreign languages, she went successively to Madrid (Spain) and to Amsterdam (The Netherlands) for 6 months.

She then got a lot of secretarial and administrative experience through work as secretary in different commercial companies from 1993 to 1995. In 1995, she joined the Guisse company where she was responsible of the commercial secretariat during 7 years, and followed a formation in ISO 9002 Quality Scheme to be a certified internal auditor.

Since 2002, Catherine has worked at the FEAP Secretariat, where she is responsible for the organisation of seminars, workshops and meetings for the FEAP and for the projects within which the FEAP is involved (such as the PROFET workshops). An important part of her work is to coordinate the communication between members inside FEAP.

At the Secretariat, Catherine is responsible for much of the administrative work of the Federation and the projects where the FEAP has an involvement.