Barcelona World Race Ocean Campus: ocean sailing arrives at the University

On the presentation, Xavier Amador, director of Institutional Relations of the Area of Quality of Life, Equality and Sports of the Barcelona City Council and representative of FNOB, explained that the knowledge linked with the Barcelona World Race, for instace "to plan a healthy diet, to get closer to your body and mind, to continue working under adverse and exhausting conditions and to know how to manage your sleep", among many others, "can be taken out of the regatta and applied to the management of our daily lives in order to improve it. This is the reason why the project fits well into the work developed by the Barcelona City Council and the Barcelona Foundation for Ocean Sailing".

Manel Viader, vice-rector for Teaching Policy of the University of Barcelona, pointed out that "it is an exciting initiative in which the UB is involved wholeheartedly", because "these are the first MOOC courses launched by the University of Barcelona and they aim at disseminating knowledge universally, at any cost and with a certificate".

After the introduction pronounced by Santi Serrat, editorial director of the Barcelona World Race Ocean Campus, and the speeches given by Dr Manel Viader and Xavier Amador, a round table talk took place. Some members of the teaching staff and representatives of the collaborating institutions described the contents of the courses. The personalities who participated in the round table talk were:

- Jordi Barinaga, adjunct lecturer of the course Estrategias para ganar. Meteorología en la vuelta al mundo, coordinated by Tomás Molina, professor from the Department of Astronomy and Meteorology of UB.

- Cristina Ribó, deputy director of Hospital Quirón Teknon, presented the course Lesiones, enfermedades y telemedicina en vela extrema, coordinated by Belén Gualis.

- Ana Adan, lecturer from the Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology of UB and coordinator of the course El cerebro en una vuelta al mundo sin parar. Cronobiología y gestión del sueño.

- Victòria Pons, head of the Department of Physiology and Nutrition of the High Performance Centre (CAR) in Sant Cugat, and Pere Castells,coordinator of UB-Bullipedia Unit, who direct the course Gastronomía y alimentación de alto rendimiento para una vuelta al mundo.

- Jordi Serra, professor from the Department of Stratigraphy, Paleontology and Marine Geosciences of UB and coordinator of the course Oceanografía: una clave para entender mejor nuestro mundo.

Besides UB and FNOB representatives, the presentation was also attended by Jordi Renom, academic coordinator of the Barcelona World Race Campus.

One international event, one thousand disciplines

The Barcelona World Race Ocean Campus aims at disseminating in an accurate way the knowledge associated to oceanic sailing. The Barcelona World Race, the first only double-handed (two-crew) regatta around the world, is the central theme from which coursesʼ contents have been developed.

The campus starts its activity with five courses on Meteorology, Medicine, Nutrition and Dietetics, Oceanography and Chronobiology. They include materials in Catalan, Spanish and English. Courses begin in November 2014 and end in May 2015. They last between six and eight weeks.

The courses of the Barcelona World Race Ocean Campus are Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC). The most important universities around the world are offering this type of courses as a way to promote free knowledge transfer. They are based on participation, so students will share their knowledge and experiences in order to enrich course contents. Moreover, professionals and experts will profit the Campus to further develop their skills and increase their teaching experience.

MOOCs will be included in the platform Canvas by Instructure, used by more than 4 million people in the world. Courses are opened to any person interested in them. The University of Barcelona, together with Inlea —an organization specialized in designing online training programmes—, will provide certificates to those students who ask for them. Payment is only required if the student asks for an academic certificate.

A pioneering and transversal experience

The Barcelona World Race Ocean Campus is a pioneering initiative in the world of oceanic sailing. For FNOB the campus means an extension of the educational programme of the race which has been a model in bringing knowledge associated to oceanic sailing closer to primary and secondary students.

For the University of Barcelona, the campus is a new initiative because the Barcelona World Race Ocean Campus are the first MOOC launched by the institution.

Coursesʼ contents have been developed by lecturers from the University of Barcelona together with members of the Department of Education and editorial staff

of the Barcelona World Race, and experts from the Hospital Quirón-Teknon, the Institute of Marine Sciences of CSIC, the High Performance Centre (CAR) in Sant Cugat and the UB-Bullipedia Unit. Moreover, prestigious experts will participate in the courses.