Rapid Teacher Training Programme on Distance, Open and Online Learning

About This Course

The overall aim of this Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) is to strengthen the support for teachers to deliver distance education and use information and communications technology (ICT) in education during and beyond the COVID-19 crisis. The course will introduce teachers to basic digital skills, remote learning methods, and pedagogical use of ICT for teaching to ensure the continuation of learning and equip them with the skills and resources to deliver alternate and appropriate forms of remote learning using no-, low-, and high- tech digital tools. The course is built on three basic assumptions: 1) The quality of instruction plays a pivotal role in bolstering student learning outcomes; 2) Teacher capacity development programmes contribute to the improvement in quality of instruction, particularly when using and creating Open Education Resources (OERs) for teaching and learning; and 3) Investing in teacher professional development programmes in online and distance learning improves the quality of instruction, student learning outcomes, and access to education and opens multiple pathways of learning. Each module. The course will be delivered by renowned experts in distance and online learning and is comprised of two one-week modules and one two-week module. Each module consists of presentations, lecture notes, reading lists, and related resources (such as videos, bibliography, reports, and study cases, among others). You can download or view the course brochure here.

Learning Objectives

After this course, you'll be able to:

Provide in-service teachers with basic theoretical understanding of no-, low-, and high-tech digital tools that can be used in online and distance learning;

Provide in-service teachers with in-depth knowledge to explore how digital tools can be embedded into distance and online learning in Zimbabwe, taking cognizance of the national context, curriculum, and assessment landscape;

Empower in-service teachers to find and adapt existing OERs and licenses and share their own teaching and learning resources with an open licence;

Give in-service teachers an opportunity to collaborate with other team members using the communities of practice and district clusters to identify and introduce digital tools relevant for their context;

Give in-service teachers opportunities to plan their own school interventions on online learning and open distance learning using no-, low-, and high-tech tools.

Workload

The programme consists of three modules, with Modules 1 and 3 each running for a week and Module 2 running for two weeks. The common structure across all modules is as follows:

The content is packaged into one-hour sessions and is delivered in the form of text, videos, audio, and graphics. At the end of each session, there will question-and-answer, feedback, and reflection activities.

At the end of each module, participants will have a summative assessment which will contribute towards the final mark.

Participants are expected to engage in planned discussion forums for each module, which serve as a measure of their engagement with the course.

Modules 1 and 3 should take an estimated 5-7 hours per week, while Module 2 should take an estimated 10-12 hours.

Meet the Course Instructors

Andrew Moore

Andrew Moore is a senior manager at Neil Butcher and Associates (NBA), an educational technology consultancy firm based in Johannesburg South Africa, and has over 14 years' experience of teaching secondary education in Cape Town (Westerford High), Durban (Kearnsey College), and Johannesburg (St Stithian's College) where he was appointed Director of IT (Academic). He holds a Masters of Education degree from the University of Pretoria and has worked as an author, materials developer, instructional designer, web interface designer, and educational technology trainer. He is currently a project manager supporting projects that harness OER and the UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers (CFT) engaging Ministries of Education and educators around the developing world, including West, East and Southern Africa, India, the Philippines, the Middle East, and the Caribbean.

Jonah Mungoshi

Jonah Mungoshi is an international award-winning facilitator for in-person, online, and radio-based training with almost 20 years’ of diverse experience, including over 10 years in radio broadcasting presenting educational programmes. He is one of only 10 British Council validated master trainers in Africa for the flagship Connecting Classrooms programme, which empowers teachers and school leaders through mastery of 21st century skills and has designed and facilitated face-to-face and online interventions for the British Council, UNDP, UNESCO, USAID, WFP, UNICEF, and UNHCR, among others. He has also been involved in piloting innovative online educational programmes, including Teaching Enterprise Skills in theUK, Core Skills for TVET College Lecturers in– South Africa, and Progression in Core Skills for Curriculum Developers in Kenya.

Lovemore Ndlovu

Lovemore Ndlovu is a leading teacher professional development specialist with almost 30 years of experience, including 14 years as an assessment manager and as a lecturer and consultant working across different stakeholders, ranging from education ministries to bilateral and multilateral organizations. He holds a Doctor of Education degree from the University of South Africa (UNISA) and has extensive experience in design and implementation of education programmes in the area of teacher professional development, distance learning, curriculum, and assessment. He is also a researcher, author, and learning materials developer.