The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) has begun online courses for teachers in Africa and the Caribbean to train them to become online educators
The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) has begun online courses for teachers in Africa and the Caribbean to train them to become online educators.
The courses, titled Facilitating Online Courses, Facilitating with PowerPoint, and Flexible Skills Development, have commenced in Barbados, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Kenya, Nigeria and Zambia and have been subscribed to by 120 learners.
They have been designed to help teachers in Africa and the Caribbean to incorporate ICT in their courses and progress towards a blended learning model that combines classroom teaching with online digital resources.
Leaners can access courses online using Moodle, a Learning Management System used by COL in its virtual events.
Technical and vocational skills development is a central focus for the organisation, which is pushing online and distance learning (ODL) in all Commonwealth countries to ensure education can be accessed by all.
Dr Alison Mead Richardson, a COL Education Specialist in Technical and Vocational Skills Development, said: “These courses are part of COL’s capacity-building activities to address quality improvement and increasing access to technical and vocational education and training (TVET) — especially for women.
“COL uses online training because it is more affordable and accessible to all partners.”