Spain and Indonesia, 20 May – In the first half of this year, I had the opportunity to teach courses related to occupational safety and health (OSH) and Industrial Hygiene to undergraduate students at Universidad de Almeria (UAL), Spain, and Universitas Negeri Malang (UM), Indonesia. The teaching activity in Spain was funded under the Erasmus Staff Mobility Program, which supports the educational, professional, and personal development of people in education in Europe and beyond through lifelong learning. I participated in the International Staff Week (ISW) 2024, hosted by UAL from 22-26 April 2024. During the very packed five-day program, I was scheduled to teach chemical engineering undergraduates (who registered for English-based courses) on the Introduction to the Fundamental Concepts of OSH and Industrial Hygiene on the second day, 23 April 2024.
My teaching activity at UAL was hosted by Prof. Tania Mazzuca Sobczuk, a very active and productive lecturer and researcher at UAL. There were local students from Spain and exchange students from Italy in the class. Since they had a chemical engineering background, I provided many examples and scenarios related to chemical process industries in the lecture so that they could relate the significance of the course to the real world, working as engineers once they graduate. After the class, Prof. Tania shared her approach to teaching Hazard and Operability Analysis (HAZOP) to her students with me. I found her approach of assigning students roles like a team of engineers in a real company very interesting and plan to apply it to our students as well.
As for my teaching activity at Universitas Negeri Malang, it began a year ago when a final-year student from UM came to our department for a student exchange program. Since he was from the Public Health Department, he was very interested in joining the elective subject I taught – Industrial Hygiene. Observing his positive traits and willingness to learn new things, I felt obligated to guide him beyond the class syllabus. I supervised him in writing a journal paper using our data (with him as the first author) to train and polish his technical writing skills, and he did a wonderful job as an undergraduate student.
Following that, he introduced me to his Dean, which initiated the arrangement for me to teach at UM, particularly in the Department of Public Health. After almost a year of planning, I was invited to teach at UM for two modules: 1) Industrial Hygiene Concepts and 2) Physical and Psychological Ergonomics in the Workplace, including the Workload Concept. Initially, I taught two online classes on 25 April and 3 May 2024 (the first module) before giving a physical lecture (the second module) on 17 May 2024 to almost 220 students, the majority of whom were first-year students and some third-year students. I ensured the lecture session was interactive by probing several questions and asking for their opinions or input throughout the almost 2-hour session. Students asked many questions at the end of the lecture, showing their interest in the topic presented.
In both teaching engagements at UAL and UM, we also discussed potential future collaborations between the institutions, particularly for our departments, establishing memoranda of agreement (MoA) or other official agreements for various activities involving teaching, research, and supervision. Especially for Universitas Negeri Malang, as they are starting their international program later this year, there is an emerging need for English-based lectures, hence opening up more opportunities for Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) to contribute more to cross-lecture activities.
By: Assoc. Prof. Ir. Dr. Mimi H. Hassim (Safety and Health Research Group/UTM-MPRC Institute for Oil and Gas, UTM Johor Bahru), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tania Mazzuca Sobczuk (Department of Chemical Engineering, UAL, Spain), Anita Sulistyorini, S.Kep., Ns., M.Kes (Public Health Department, Sport Science Faculty, Universitas Negeri Malang)