Models of support for educators moving online
ACDE (African Council for Distance Education), OU (Open University), IET (Institute of Educational Technology) and TESSA (Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa) have teamed up to bring you Pathways for learning: Models of support for educators moving online.
Context
• The pandemic has accelerated the need to provide good quality online teaching in a very short time.
• There are a range of online courses and free materials available to teachers to help them obtain the skills to move their curriculum online. However, there is a lack of understanding of how these courses and activities can be curated, personalised, or delivered in a supported way to help educators achieve meaningful learning outcomes.
Overview
Two ‘pathways for learning’ are offered, to support educators moving to more teaching and learning at a distance and online:
Pathway 1: ‘Making teacher education relevant for 21st Century Africa’
For all heads of education faculties and departments, education lecturers and teacher educators.
Pathway 2: ‘How to take your teaching online’
For all head of faculties and departments, university lecturers, educators and staff who support online teaching.
Certificates will be provided for all completers, free of charge.
Aims
To provide the opportunity for educators to engage with online learning so that they can:
• Engage with content that will help them in their role in the COVID19 environment and beyond
• Experience online learning themselves so that they can understand the learner perspective
• Understand how remote and face-to-face facilitation can support engagement
Through this we will all better understand how this professional audience engages with the materials and activities on offer.
Pathway 1: Making teacher education relevant for 21st Century Africa
Content: How to support active learning and teaching, how to use ICT to support learning; using OER effectively
Time requirement: Participate in at least 3 online webinars, 16 hours of online study over 4 weeks
Background
• The course models high quality teacher education
• It is practice-focussed
• The activities that participants undertake are largely experiential, productive and communicative
• Participants will be introduced to a range of OER, including the TESSA library, which supports teachers and teacher educators how to implement the sort of teaching approaches highlighted in new school curricula all over Africa.
Learning outcomes
✓ explain and demonstrate the values and practices that support learner-centred education
✓ develop a plan to incorporate ICT tools and OER into your own practice
✓ explain, with examples, how ICT tools can be used to enhance teacher learning and promote active learning in school
✓ collaborate with colleagues in order to review practices in your institution
✓ explore the potential of OER, particularly TESSA resources, to enhance learning and teaching
Pathway 2: How to take your teaching online
Content: Online learning, instructional design, educational technology, assessment and quality enhancement
Time requirement: Participate in at least 2 online webinars, 24 hours of online study, activities using Open University platforms
Background
• Teaching online is different.
• If you work in education or training, you need to develop new skills and understanding in order to make the right decisions, make the most of the opportunities, and overcome common challenges.
• This will give essential understanding to support quality online teaching, and also allow you to experience and consider some of the approaches developed by The Open University UK
Learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:
• Understand how teaching online is different to teaching in a face-toface environment, with benefits and challenges
• Choose suitable pedagogies, tools and resources as part of the instructional design of your courses
• Use online platforms to promote active learning and engagement along the student journey
• Understand approaches to assessment that work online and at a distance
Learning schedule
Starting week of the 6th of July
➢ Initial webinar
➢ Online learning
➢ Facilitated activities, experiencing various online platforms
➢ Mid-course webinar
➢ Online learning
➢ Facilitated activities, experiencing various online platforms
➢ End-of-course webinar
➢ Evaluation
Next steps
Work together to work out how to make the most of this opportunity in each institution:
1. Promote this opportunity in your institutions and with partners
2. Encourage as many as possible to register for at least one pathway
3. Support the timely registration of participants (information for both pathways will come from ACDE soon)
