Twenty-eight staff members from BIOTROP, SEAMEO Regional Center for Food and Nutrition (RECFON), and SEAMEO Regional Centre for Quality Improvement of Teachers and Education Personnel in Language (SEAQIL) acquired the basic knowledge and skills on   Multimedia-based Digital Book Development during a training held on 20-22 April 2015 at BIOTROP headquarter in Bogor.

The training was generally aimed to enable the staff members of SEAMEO centres in Indonesia to generate multimedia-based digital books in support of their capacity building and information exchange activities.  As a result, the said SEAMEO Centres will be producing 8 digital books before the end of 2015.

In giving the training coordinator’s report, Mr. Harry Imantho, BIOTROP’s Knowledge Management Department Manager, informed the participants that the training was a joint activity of BIOTROP and the SEAMEO Regional Open Learning Centre (SEAMOLEC) as part of their 3-year Memorandum of Understanding signed last 28 February 2015. 

This MoU is meant to enhance the capacities of individual and institutional stakeholders of both Centres towards addressing common educational and other developmental concerns confronting the educational sector of Indonesia. The training was expected to be an input to forthcoming related activities that both Centres will undertake with their partners.  This MoU is also one the many Inter-Centre Collaborations taking place among the SEAMEO Centers in Indonesia

On the other hand, BIOTROP Deputy Director for Program Dr. Jess C. Fernandez, in his opening remarks, encouraged the participants to learn as much from the training towards improving the quality of information resources and approaches in delivering training services using digital technologies to be more interesting and accessible to a wide range of stakeholders of their respective Centres.

The training introduced the following softwares to the participants:   (1) Screencast-O-Matic which enables them to make a video using laptop web camera; (2) Microsoft Word which converts publication documents into HTML format; (3) Sigil which changes HTML documents into e-pub formats to be readable in PCs and smart phones through e-pub reader; and (4) Readium and Gitden Reader as e-pub application readers for PC and smart phones, respectively.

Resource persons from SEAMOLEC were Mr. Timbul Pardede, Training and ISO Manager, and Ms. Haulia, Mr. Aji Wicaksono and Mr. Agri Tarapita, all IT staff.  Resource person from BIOTROP was Mr. Haritz Cahya Nugraha, Website Administrator.