The Covid-19 pandemic brought about major changes to our continuous professional development (CPD) modalities, by rapidly shifting from in-person modalities for our beneficiaries, to developing and designing CPD content for delivery through blended or fully online modalities.
As part of VVOB’s ongoing Leading, Teaching and Learning Together programme (LTLT), the CPD training programmes have been running through blended learning in primary and secondary schools in 17 out of 30 districts since 2017.
Through Building Resilience project supported by the Mastercard Foundation through its COVID-19 Recovery and Resilience Program, more than 700 laptops were donated to secondary schools in the remaining 16 districts in May 2021, as part of 3,000 laptops delivered to schools 30 districts to help establish an enabling environment for online and blended CPD for teachers and school leaders.
To build digital literacy skills that are necessary for blended and online learning for head teachers, deputy head teachers, school-based mentors and STEM subject leaders from secondary schools in the 16 districts, VVOB organised a training on Digital Literacy for Online Learning for them. This course will allow the beneficiaries to learn different digital literacy skills to successfully take online and blended CPDs and familiarise themselves with the online learning environment (Moodle Learning Management System or LMS) which they will use to participate in further online CPD courses.
The first round targeted more than 500 head teachers trained in 28 groups, and took place from August 29 to September 6, 2021, in blended learning mode. The first four days were face-to-face, while the rest took place online via VVOB Moodle Learning Management System (LMS).
Participant’s experience
Patricie Umunezero is the head teacher of G.S Rwankuba, a Nine-Year Basic Education school in Gatsibo district, Eastern Province. She has been a leader of this school since 2016. Her school received three laptops through the BR-LTLT project. According to her, attending such a training a few months after receiving the laptops is certainly a game changer.
“We had only one computer which was not enough. I had learnt to use a computer only in theory. There were very few computers, 20 students would do computer practice on one computer, so some students would not do practice at all. I needed to use a computer frequently to get familiar with it, but it was not possible as the laptop was being used for school-related work. When our school received laptops from VVOB, my prayer was answered! I intensified practices and have reached a good level now. I’ve not yet reached an advanced level, but I already know the basics. For instance, I improved my knowledge of Microsoft Word and Excel which was very limited,” Ms Umunezero said.
Learning to learn online
Ms Umunezero had never taken any course online before. She could only learn that some people study online but she could not understand it. Ms Umunezero shared what she gained from the training as far as online learning is concerned:
- Self-study: “I learnt to use search engines to find thoughts and resources on my course-related concerns and any other topic without necessarily asking the course facilitator everything”.
- Time management: “I can now learn from wherever I am without having to travel to university or to institution offering courses. In addition, I can learn at my own pace”.
- Friendly learning environment: “I was impressed to see how the ‘Moodle’ learning environment works. I realised that a trainer is able to monitor every student’s activity. The trainer could see that some of us had not done our tasks and asked why we did not complete it. I couldn’t believe it! I thought he would monitor my course-related activities on my own computer, not on his. ‘This is how I will make a follow-up on what you do once you start online sessions,’ the trainer told us. In other words, I realised that interaction between a student and an instructor is still possible even in an online learning environment”.
Creating an email account
Marie Gorette Musabyeyezu leads G.S Gatarama in Kirehe district, Eastern Province. She had never had any formal training on using a computer. She said she gained a lot of skills that she will continue to use to improve her digital literacy skills.
“I had informally learnt basic skills in Microsoft Word and Excel. I improved my skills in Microsoft Word such as text formatting, creating a table, inserting pictures, among other functions. I also learnt to use formulas, create charts in excel and learnt PowerPoint as a new software which I was not using— I simply knew that it exists,” Musabyeyezu said.
“I did not know how to create an email account. A friend of mine created an email account for me. In this training I learnt how to create an email account by myself. I was very excited when I learnt this. During this training I managed to create an email account for my husband just as an exercise. I will also show him how to create it,” she added.
Online meetings
For Alfred Rurangwa, head teacher of G.S Kigina in Kirehe district in Eastern Province, participating or organising an online meeting was something he couldn’t even think about. “For the first time I learnt how to hold an online learning meeting. I found online meetings very exciting. I was relying on my cell phone, phone calls and WhatsApp, but I learnt how to organise online meetings as well. I realised that online meetings are less time consuming, as you can attend it from anywhere.”
Mr Rurangwa is already enrolled in VVOB’s CPD diploma course in Effective School Leadership offered online. However, he was still struggling accessing courses online. “This training prepares us for online learning. It guides us on how to learn online. So, I had skipped a step, I would say. I was having issues on Moodle, I was not able to upload a document, could not edit a document and didn’t know how to submit a document. In addition, I heard that some school leaders attending the same course would participate in forum discussions on online learning, but I didn’t know how to contribute to those forums. This training has answered all the issues I was facing related to online learning while opening room for more knowledge and skills as far as digitalisation is concerned. At the same time, this training will allow us to get information and resources online, use online communication platforms, and therefore help us to improve our work as school leaders.”
By mid-December 2021, a total of 3,755 participants from 751 schools, including head teachers, deputy head teachers, school-based mentors and school STEM subject leaders will have participated in the Digital Literacy for Online Learning course.
