20 new teachers with Pedagogical and Technical skills for e-learning – Mekele University

6 Mar 11 under General | Leave a comment

COEThis week Alex and I have completed the introductory module of the Certificate in Online Education for teachers of Technical and Health Sciences faculties of Mekele University in Ethiopia. This course began in October 2010 with 1 Face-To-Face week. During the online period from October 2010 to February 2011, the participants had the opportunity to create course Web using tools that are useful in teaching, converting traditional courses and learned to use Web-based components to enhance face-to-face instruction.

All course materials are placed on Moodle and include module content (course outline, lecture notes, additional resources, audio and video lectures, assignments and open educational resources) and communication (forum, chat room, e-mail).

This material is intended to strengthen the current teaching of the courses to the current students in learning activities through access to computer labs on university campuses.

In this version of the Certificate in Online Education, we have included the evaluation of the developed courses based on peer review and on action plan for the future development work.

  • Peer Review: participants gave the opinions and constructive feedback on the peer’s course. The completed form was uploaded as submission for this assignment.
  • Course Review and Action Plan: each participant completed this form based on the feedback from the trainers, from other course participants and from their students.

Of the 26 participants who started the Certificate in Online Education in October 2010, 20 have completed the requirements to receive a certificate conferred by the Computation Sciences School, University of Alcala, Madrid Spain.

Mekele University has 20 new teachers with Pedagogical and Technical skills for e-learning and at least 20 new courses provided in a blended learning environment, taking the best of the classical classroom training (face-to-face instructor-led learning), and the best of online learning (self-paced learning, follow-up mechanisms on the Web and greater flexibility to meet the different learning styles).

Jaime

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Open Educational Resources

14 Jan 11 under General | Leave a comment

What is OER?

As I mentioned in previous posts, OER is defined as digitized educational materials offered freely and openly for use and re-use in teaching, learning and research.

OER challenges

Using OER in education presents some important challenges:

  • Globalization of the knowledge societies, related to the rise of knowledge-intensive societies and the demand for skilled population.
  • Challenges to education systems: extend reach of education, improve quality and flexibility.

Could the technology help?

The developments of new technical solutions, the increasing connectivity, the growing numbers of low-cost devices and the rising of open digital content create the infrastructure to facilitate knowledge sharing in a global context with social, economic and cultural differences.

OER: an academic and cultural challenge

The explosive increase of OER reinforces the tradition of the altruist academic sharing. Initiatives like MIT OpenCourseWare, the UNESCO actions, the OpenCourseWare Consortium movement, and others initiatives opened a wide debate about OER implications, about their advantages and disadvantages in educational systems in different parts of the world.

OER and the cultural context

OER content that is useful in a cultural, academic and economic development is not always applicable in a different context.
When a university is considering the use of open content in the development of their subjects, must carefully consider the relevance and implications of implementing OER and imagine the prospects for participation in the OER movement as institution.
The participation of the universities in this movement implies to go beyond its role like users of open contents to an active role to share the didactic materials developed by its teachers. This step raises important challenges; to develop pedagogical and technical skills between the teachers to develop to interactive contents and methods of quality control.

Interesting views

Catherine Ngugi’s interview, project director of OER Africa, offers interesting views:

  • Some resources created elsewhere, might not be culturally appropriate, or relevant to the other place.
  • Connectivity is one of the practical challenges.
  • An important point is availability of free licences, with permission for free use.
  • The support from university management is crucial.
  • The notion of open learning is an incentive for academics, but they need to know how to do it.
  • The partnership with other universities is a key issue.

For more detail, read the Catherine Ngugi’s interview (http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=2010121021305756)

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An interesting index of OER Resources

3 Oct 10 under General | Leave a comment

This list shows examples of OER, which, as explained: “The Open Educational Resources come in many shapes and sizes”.

This listing is part of the Free to Learn Guide (look in the Table of Contents: Index of OER Resources)

This guide describe Open Educational Resources (OER) as a cost-efficient method of improving the quality of teaching and learning while at the same time reducing costs imposed on students related to the purchase of expensive commercial textbooks and learning materials.

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