Publishing the Handbook of Indo-Pacific Studies is the most ambitious task of the EISIPS project – to create a teaching tool that does not exist yet in Europe and will be crucial for developing and strengthening the education of Indo-Pacific at EU universities. The handbook is designed to improve the quality and prospects of teaching of IPS in the EU as it will transfer latest research findings into education and directly prepare these materials for the classroom by providing exercises, assignments, e-learning materials, tips for future study, etc.
At the same time, the handbook also aims to place the European research tradition and European perspectives and insights on IPS firmly at the center of this global research field by becoming a multi-disciplinary reference work for IPS all over the world.
Since this project is co-funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ Program this handbook and its complementary didactic materials will be available on this website and free of costs under a fair-use license. A fair-use license indicates that any copying of copyrighted material can be done for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work. Such uses can be done without permission from the copyright owner. Such Open Access is a cornerstone in the vision of European projects, and all members of EISIPS support this policy fully.
This Handbook of Indo-Pacifc Studies is foremost directed at learners of Indo-Pacific Studies (IPS) – the primary target audience – in this case students in their final years of their bachelor program, master students, and junior PhD-students. (The book can be used in a classroom context, but also for self-study.)
Since this is a diverse main group, every handbook chapter will include the following elements to aid them with their learning process:
- Introductory questions
- (Learning outcomes)
- Summaries/conclusions (after each section)
- Cases / Case studies
- Aimed at providing depth to an argument/statement
- Aimed at providing context to an argument/statement
- As the basis for an assignment/exercise
- A future reading list
- Exercises for revision, self-study
In addition, to facilitate learning the handbook in general will also include:
- A glossary of concepts (in the beginning of the book)
- A list of abbreviations and their meaning
- Maps (for visualization the explained phenomena/trends/etc.)
- Other visual materials
- A guide on self-study
The second target audience are the teachers of these students. The handbook will encompass different tools to aid this particular group with constructing lesson plans, formulating homework, selecting relevant handbook chapters for their courses, setting up study programs, completing/enriching courses by selecting e-learning materials, assignments, etc.
To this purpose each handbook chapter will contain:
- Learning outcomes
- Cases / Case studies
- As the basis for an assignment/exercise
- A whole range of exercises at different levels:
- For review (testing basic knowledge)
- For testing insight (deeper knowledge & skills)
- For writing assignments
- For classroom activities
The handbook in general will also offer to teachers:
- A full list of learning outcomes covered in the handbook (at the end of the handbook)
- Curriculum recommendations
- Links to e-learning materials (recorded podcasts)
- A guide on teaching techniques, which are promoted in the handbook
The third target audience are of course (young) scholars, academics from related disciplines that aim to migrate into the field of IPS, but not excluding the general public or other experts. They will be reading the handbook to increase their understanding about the region or in search for references and insights by its authors. Most probably, this group will use the handbook on their own terms, and will do so selectively without guidance of a mentor, promotor or teacher.
Nonetheless, each handbook chapter contains some elements that they will find useful:
- Introductory questions
- Summaries/conclusions (after each section)
- Cases / Case studies [see lower]
- Aimed at providing depth to an argument/statement
- Aimed at providing context to an argument/statement
- A future reading list
The handbook in general will also offer them:
- A smart index with four categories: names, places, concepts and events
- A guide on self-study
- A glossary of concepts (in the beginning of the book)
- A list of abbreviations and their meaning
- Maps (for visualization the explained phenomena/trends/etc.)
- Other visual materials
As described above, the handbook thus caters to three different audiences and has various tools to facilitate their process of studying the region. This handbook thus differs radically from existing handbooks, which are predominantly ‘author-based’ and narrative. While such books may sometimes also be used for teaching, and can be excellent reference works, they were not designed for teaching, and therefore demand much more preparatory work and creativity from teachers in order to be used to this purpose.
By focusing first on students, then on their teachers, and thirdly on advanced readers this book project actually increases the variety of end-users, and does not narrow them down to one segment by discriminating others. As experienced readers, scholars and other experts can easily read over the learning outcomes, skip exercises entirely and focus solely on the text. This will not hamper their reading-process. And many of them will enjoy to watch an online lecture (related to the chapter topics of their interest). On the other hand, the other two target audiences require more assistance as to make optimal use of such a handbook.