In June 6th, 2010, the first group of tutors completed the Basic Certificate in Online Education course. The next step would be the Advanced Certificate in Online Education Course, consisting of online and F2F sessions, that will go from September 2010 to April 2011.

The objectives of this course will be:

• A wider knowledge of Web tools to produce didactic materials.
• Improved quality of online courses.
• Achieve a tighter integration between classroom teaching and online material, including more collaborative activities for students.
• Improved student usage of the computer labs and the learning platform.

To achieve these goals a combination of actions will be required:

• F2F workshops,
• Online support for tutors and
• Specific support in improving the materials and teaching methodologies.

The performance indicators and requirements for participants are a critical component for this course.

New Basic Online Education Certificate

Considering the increasing interest of MU professors in participating in these training courses, a new Basic Online Education Certificate Course will start in November 2010 for another group of tutors.

Digital Campus is working with teams of faculty members, researchers on learning and engineers to develop embedded courses designed to improve the educational experience in higher education in Ethiopia.

In emerging countries, teachers are often saddled with old – and often irrelevant – materials. The question we address is how can the Open Educational Resources (OER) movement remove barriers to accessibility of world-class knowledge at the higher-education level?.

Open courseware is an example of disruptive technology. Open Educational Resources encourage critical thinking, the use of multiple sources to check accuracy, and problem solving. Several studies have shown that students learn a full semester’s worth of material in half the time when the online coursework is added and more students stick with the class, too.

Thousands of pieces of free educational material — videos and podcasts of lectures, syllabuses, entire textbooks — have been posted in the name of the open courseware movement. But how to make sense of it all? . We think O.E.R. can be the most cost-effective way to improve education in emerging countries and we’d like to see continued growth and expansion. We are aware that now we have the technology that enables us to go back for a personalized educational experience with interactive engagement.

At Digital Campus, we are preparing  projects that will track and analyze how open education may enhance learning, and examine how it is changing the future of education in Ethiopia.

This week saw the final face to face training week for our first batch of tutors on the Basic Certificate in Online Education. On Friday evening we held a celebratory dinner at the Axum hotel. Ato Tadesse (Head of the Institute of Pedagogical Sciences) and Dr Beruket (vice-director of the Tigray Institute of Technology) presented certificates to the following tutors:

Atsede Fantahun, Tsegay Girmay, Selamawit Mengesha, Mahmud Abdulkader, Goitom Fitsum, Araya Abrha, Hana Mengistu, Segen Yainshet, Kirubel Anteab, Abera Hadgu, Derbew Fikadu, Kalayou Kidanu, Hayelom Kebede, Seyoum Eshetu, Fasil Kiros.

The next step is planning for the advanced certificate and also running the basic course again for a new batch of staff. The Institute of Technology (previously the Engineering College) has employed three new staff as elearning specialists (Fre, Berihu and Meseret), so I will begin their training over the next few weeks to prepare them to support the tutors and students.