Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Designing our first online course at AUC
I am ever more excited about progress in Haiti - dispite setbacks and inprobability of sucess. We had our 4th Centra meeting this morning where we continued to hammer out the Information Technology program.
We are in the process of designing the first distance course which I will lead in the fall from Benin. It will be an introduction to computing course designed to teach students important computer literacy skills (email, information searching, word processing, etc) and provide them with an overview of the professional field of information technology.
The course will be held in English, French and Creole. The students have been studying English for the past year and will be ready for some form of English instruction. I believe that this needs to be supplimented with conversation and ability to explore concepts in their native language. As a teaching team, we are really stuggling with making the most use of limited contact hours. How much and what should be taught in English? How much and what should be taught by the distant instructor vs. the local course facilitator? There is a lot to think about.
From other perspectives, important parts of the course are coming together. I am building a strong relationship with the local facilitator of the course who will lead discussion sessions, proctor exams and grade homework. He will be my eyes, ears and "presence." Theoretically, I predicted that the success of this model of distance education rests largely on the relationship between the distant instructor and the local facilitator. I feel confident that by developing the course together, the local facilitator and I will be able to make the course a successful experience for the students. The bigger question becomes, how do I encourage that type of relationship building between other instructors and facilitators in the future? What mechanisms and or resources need to be in place to encourage that relationship?
We are in the process of designing the first distance course which I will lead in the fall from Benin. It will be an introduction to computing course designed to teach students important computer literacy skills (email, information searching, word processing, etc) and provide them with an overview of the professional field of information technology.
The course will be held in English, French and Creole. The students have been studying English for the past year and will be ready for some form of English instruction. I believe that this needs to be supplimented with conversation and ability to explore concepts in their native language. As a teaching team, we are really stuggling with making the most use of limited contact hours. How much and what should be taught in English? How much and what should be taught by the distant instructor vs. the local course facilitator? There is a lot to think about.
From other perspectives, important parts of the course are coming together. I am building a strong relationship with the local facilitator of the course who will lead discussion sessions, proctor exams and grade homework. He will be my eyes, ears and "presence." Theoretically, I predicted that the success of this model of distance education rests largely on the relationship between the distant instructor and the local facilitator. I feel confident that by developing the course together, the local facilitator and I will be able to make the course a successful experience for the students. The bigger question becomes, how do I encourage that type of relationship building between other instructors and facilitators in the future? What mechanisms and or resources need to be in place to encourage that relationship?
Monday, July 11, 2005
Another Haiti roadtrip
This past weekend I drove down to Virginia to meet with Patrick from the University of Virginia who is doing his PhD in Education Technology and is interested in writing about distance learning as a way to do training in health care in Haiti. We are working collaboratively both in research and practice, so it was nice to meet him.
He is flying down to Haiti this coming week to do a needs analysis on health care in Haiti in terms of what kinds of things would make good training seminars. The plan is then to develop a mini certificate program to offer through the American University in Les Cayes via Centra that will allow health professionals in the US to train health care workers in Haiti.
I am excited about the possibilities of what we might be able to learn from this project. Some knowledge will invariably need to be tacit. My question is, are there enough affordances in Centra to facilitate that kind of knowledge transfer. The other interesting component or opportunity that arises from this project is possibility of engagement. Many of the potential partners of the project are faculty at the University of Virginia. Are there opportunities for them to learn more about tropical diseases or gather data from Les Cayes ?
Will post more as the project unfolds...
He is flying down to Haiti this coming week to do a needs analysis on health care in Haiti in terms of what kinds of things would make good training seminars. The plan is then to develop a mini certificate program to offer through the American University in Les Cayes via Centra that will allow health professionals in the US to train health care workers in Haiti.
I am excited about the possibilities of what we might be able to learn from this project. Some knowledge will invariably need to be tacit. My question is, are there enough affordances in Centra to facilitate that kind of knowledge transfer. The other interesting component or opportunity that arises from this project is possibility of engagement. Many of the potential partners of the project are faculty at the University of Virginia. Are there opportunities for them to learn more about tropical diseases or gather data from Les Cayes ?
Will post more as the project unfolds...
