Education

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http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/2415

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Climate Change Education for Teachers
(2024) Commonwealth of Learning (COL)
The urgency of climate change, marked by human-driven global warming, rising sea levels, and extreme weather, calls for widespread educational reform. The 2022 IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report underscores the critical need for climate change education that enables teachers, students, and communities to understand and address these impacts. Globally, teachers are tasked with embedding climate knowledge and actionable insights into curricula, yet often lack sufficient resources and support. Innovative, localised approaches are essential, allowing teachers to connect climate impacts with students’ own communities and foster individual responsibility. Consequently, the Commonwealth of Learning proposes a six-course diploma programme on climate change education for teachers, with modules at various stages of completion. Grounded in constructivist pedagogy, this programme builds capacities for pre- and in-service teachers. Licensed under Creative Commons-Attribution-ShareAlike, it aims to nurture a community-oriented perspective that emphasises ecological justice and community resilience. Through this approach, teachers and students can engage meaningfully in climate action, transforming awareness into impactful, community-driven responses. The programme can be adapted to suit different institutional contexts.
Climate Change and Its Impacts: Adaptation, Mitigation, and Climate Justice
(2024) Commonwealth of Learning (COL)
The course will focus on strategies for adapting to climate change’s impacts, mitigating its consequences, and addressing climate justice issues. Teacher candidates will engage in discussions about various approaches to climate resilience and explore the ethical dimensions of climate change. By examining real-world examples, participants will gain insights into effective adaptation and mitigation practices, preparing them to promote climate justice in their local areas.
Inclusive Community Engagement for Climate Change Action
(2024) Commonwealth of Learning (COL)
This course is designed to help teachers and educators explain the importance of taking action on climate change and equip them with the tools to identify and plan effective climate action. Special emphasis is placed on fostering inclusive community engagement, particularly in communities that are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Participants critically analyse the factors that enable inclusive community engagement, learn the essential steps for engaging diverse communities in climate action, and develop tailored strategies for climate change initiatives. The course includes case studies focused on community engagement for climate action within local contexts.
Open Resources for English Language Teaching (ORELT)
(2012) Adeyanju , Thomas K; Maisamari , Musa; Ndege, Speranza M; Sanyal, Mukti; Muganda, Cornelia; Olaofe, Isaac; Boruah, Padmini
Open Resources for English Language Teaching (ORELT) is intended to support the classroom activities of teachers of junior secondary schools (JSS). The aims of ORELT are to: Provide a bank of ‘open content’ multi-media resources in on-line and traditional text formats that will support school-based education and training for teachers in junior secondary schools; Provide ‘open content’ support resources for teacher educators who prepare teachers for junior secondary schools. To achieve these aims a Situation analysis of English language teaching (ELT) in selected Commonwealth nations was undertaken to determine strengths, gaps and challenges of teaching English in Africa and Asia. This formed the basis for developing appropriate materials that address the needs and realities of JSS teachers. The six modules are:

Module 1: Better Listening

Module 2: Speaking for Better Communication

Module 3: Success in Reading

Module 4: Effective Writing

Module 5: Language through Literature

Module 6: Communicative Grammar

Each module has five units containing a range of case studies, activities and resources which teachers can easily adapt and use in their classrooms. Note, the OERLT project and portal is no longer active, resources from this project are available in PDF format only.
Preparing Distance Learning Materials
(2024-05) Mishra, Sanjaya
This short course will introduce you to the basic aspects of developing teaching and learning materials for distance and online learning. This course focuses primarily on text-based print and online materials. While it is aimed at teachers in distance teaching institutions, it will also be a useful starting point for anyone who is interested in developing an online course. If you put what you learn into action, you will be able to develop materials that students can use for self-directed learning. The approximate time to complete this course is about 135 minutes. But you will also need another 20–30 hours to develop at least one lesson’s worth of distance learning (DL) materials. This is an asynchronous course, so it will not be possible to assess your lesson quality. We recommend that you ask your peers and people who are likely to participate in the course/unit for feedback that you can use to improve your material.
Self-directed Learning for Higher Education: Course Material
(2024) Mentz, Elsa; Bunt, Byron J.; Havenga, Marietjie; Laubscher, Dorothy; Verster, Marisa; Van Zyl, Sukie; Lubbe, Anitia
This course material provides an overview of the contents of the 'Self-directed learning for higher education' massive open online course (MOOC). The MOOC provides a short introduction to SDL for faculty and facilitators in the higher education context. This MOOC covers the basic theoretical foundations of SDL. In addition, the typical characteristics of a self-directed learner and the way in which learner-centred and SDL-oriented learning environments can be created, are explored. On a more practical level, the MOOC focuses on the affordances of strategies such as cooperative learning, problem-based learning and play-based learning to foster SDL. Finally, the MOOC concludes with a section on the role of assessment to promote SDL throughout the learning process.
Authentic Assessment for Online Learning: Course Material
(2023-07) Openo, Jason
This course material provides an overview of learning designs, to help learners conceptualize authentic assessments. Upon completion of this course, learners are equipped with knowledge and practical strategies to design learner-centered digital assessment focusing on academic integrity, engagement, authenticity, and deep learning in the e-learning environment.
Learning Design for Emerging Learning Environments
(2023-03) Singh, Abtar Kaur Darshan; Kovilpillai , Jonathan Jeevan Strinivas; Uzza, Aisyamariam
This course provides an introduction to the theories, principles, guidelines and experiences for creating learning designs that will empower you to achieve desired learning outcomes in a human-centred and goal-oriented way. The course focuses beyond instructional design to cover experience design assist creating a learning environment that effectively helps students to achieve their life goals. This course will provide you with the skills and competencies to analyse learning and performance problems, design appropriate learning experiences and eventually develop creative and innovative experiential digital learning environments for the new era. Participants in the course will also develop the skills and gain the knowledge necessary to leverage these future trends and use their knowledge to create innovative learning designs that cater to the next generation of learners. The online interactive version of the course is at https://colcommons.org/
Quality Assurance of Blended and Online Learning
(2022) Commonwealth of Learning
The aim of this self-paced course is to help educational institutions develop and roll out quality blended and online courses by using several toolkits and resources COL has developed over the years. In this professional development course, faculty and administrators will learn concepts, approaches and tools in a just-in-time manner to assure the quality of blended and online learning in a post-Covid-19 world. The course helps you understand how to apply this new information to improve the quality of your blended and online course. // This is a PDF version of the course that is available on https://colcommons.org.
Motivating and Supporting Online Learners
(2022) Khoo, Elaine; Bonk, Curtis J
The course focuses on ideas that will enable educators to create interactions for a variety of educational strategies to support student motivation and learning across different contexts in online environments. Covering theoretical principles with accompanying suggested pedagogical strategies/activities, the course provides practical and innovative ideas for creating active and engaging online learning environments to enhance student motivation to learn. The course is designed for educators and learning facilitators/trainers in general — for example, in-service and/or pre-service educators — from varied backgrounds and levels of experience, intending to further develop their online teaching and learning skills and understanding. Course participants will be introduced to the range of learning opportunities on the Web and will be encouraged to consider how they could personally use and apply various technology tools and web resources effectively in their practice. // This is a PDF version of the course that is available on https://colcommons.org.
Pacific Workshop Series for Ministry Officials: Policy and Planning for Open Distance and Flexible Learning
(2022) Saide; Commonwealth of Learning
Learning resources related to the workshop series for the ministry officials in the Pacific on policy and planning for ODFL. This is an initiative under the Partnership for Open, Distance and Flexible Learning Project, supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, New Zealand. Workshop 1: Understanding the Open, Distance and Flexible Mode of Delivery, Workshop 2: Distance Education Policy & Systems, Workshop 3: Distance Education Policy & Planning.
Learning Analytics: A Primer
(2021-06) Prinsloo, Paul; Slade, Sharon; Khalil, Mohammad
This is an introductory course on Learning Analytics designed to assist teachers understand and use learning analytics ethically and appropriately in their own context. This is a PDF version of the course that is available on https://colcommons.org.
Computational Thinking for Teachers
(2021-06) Bhagat, Kaushal Kumar; Dasgupta, Chandan
This is an introductory course on Computational Thinking designed to support teachers and students to enhance the problem-solving skills required to solve complex real-world problems. It can be applied across all disciplines, irrespective of students’ grade level. This is a PDF version of the course that is available on https://colcommons.org.
Universal Design for Learning
(2021-05) Gray, Josie
This is an introductory course on Univeral Design for Learning (UDL) developed using Accessibility Toolkit – 2nd Edition by Amanda Coolidge, Sue Doner, Tara Robertson, and Josie Gray and published by BCcampus under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licence. This is a PDF version of the course that is available on https://colcommons.org.
Introduction to Microlearning
(2021) Allela, Melisa; Ogange, Betty; Mishra, Sanjaya
This is a PDF of a short course on microlearning for anyone interested in integrating micro-courses in their education and training. The course is designed to assist content creators (teachers, teacher trainers and the support team) in developing microlearning content in a consistent time-saving manner. // By the end of this course, you will be able to: Describe benefits of microlearning as a methodology for teaching and learning; Identify and list various methods and technologies associated with microlearning; Adopt a systematic approach in the creation of microlearning Lessons; Appreciate best practices for microlearning to encourage knowledge retention in both online and face-to-face instruction, including licensing for open educational resources (OER).
Inclusive Teaching and Learning
(2021-02)
Inclusive Teaching and Learning, a course that supports practitioners in developing inclusive classroom practices. You will build a ‘toolkit’ of knowledge, skills and resources that will start you on a journey to create a truly inclusive classroom. // This course is the first of a pair which draw on the UNICEF Wave model for inclusive education. The second course - Creating an Inclusive School – supports professionals in working together to create an inclusive ethos and culture and to work with stakeholders for the benefit of all learners, but particularly those with a special educational need. // We hope this course opens up possibilities for your teaching whether you work with children and young people, student teachers, or teachers, and gives you the confidence to experiment with new approaches.
Introduction To Disability Needs Assessments & Assistive Technologies
(2020-11)
This course is a joint initiative of the Commonwealth of Learning (Canada), Diversity and Ability (United Kingdom) and the Global Rainbow Foundation (Mauritius). It targets persons who work with the PWD (People with Disabilities) community. // In this 12-week course, you will learn how to conduct meaningful needs assessments and will also be introduced to free, accessible, assistive technology. It will equip you with the skills to support PWD to use enabling technologies to aid their learning or working. The course will give an understanding of your country's journey so far to Disability inclusion and equality and help you establish your role in reinforcing this.
Advanced Cybersecurity Training for Teachers
(2021-02) Commonwealth of Learning
The Advanced Cybersecurity Training for Teachers (ACTT) is a high-level course designed to equip educators with advanced skills to defend against cyber threats in digital learning. It not only instructs participants on how to protect digital learning spaces but also promotes the adoption of best practices for a secure online learning experience. It is suitable for educators who have completed the CTT course or other related cybersecurity training. This course material is available as an accessible digital book.
Teaching Mathematics with Technology (TMT)
(2020-11) Ranganathan, Sriranjani
Building mathematical competencies in all students is critical in today’s digital society, with renewed emphasis on learner skills in reasoning, computing, mathematical thinking, and problem-solving. The use of ICT in Mathematics teaching has taken on a new urgency due to the global pandemic, where restrictions on physical contact have seen many schools move towards different methods of online education. Teaching Mathematics with Technology (TMT) is a four-week MOOC which aims to build the capacity of Mathematics teachers of grades 6-10 in using Geogebra to create resources for teaching various concepts in Mathematics. Teacher educators in this subject domain as well as teachers of related technical subjects will also find this course useful.
Academic Counselling for ODL Learners
(2020-11) Mohapatra, Srikant
In the open and distance learning system, the academic counselling sessions are very important. The sessions are meant for Informing, Advising and Counselling. The academic counselling can cover both academic and non-academic components at the various stages like at pre-entry, during entry to the programme, during the course of study, at the time of examination and post-study. The academic counsellors are mostly drawn from the formal higher educational system and the exposure towards ODL system, therefore, is minimal. However, the academic counsellors are the pivotal link between the ODL institution and isolated distance learners. Their role in handling face-to-face and online academic counselling sessions at the study centre is very important. The role of an academic counsellor is multifarious and requires both tutoring and counselling. For maintaining quality in academic counselling, the accumulation of multi-dimensional skills, attributes and information is essential on the part of the counsellor in ODL. Among these, possessing information at various levels about ODL system is an enabling factor to effectively support isolated distance learner. // Teachers/Students/Educational Leaders/ODL Practitioners who want to learn more about the Academic Counselling in ODL will find this Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), Academic Counselling for ODL Learners (AC4ODL), informative and engaging. Using up-to-date learning design and simple, accessible technology, the course runs on an easy-to-use learning platform available via the Internet. The course is designed for Teachers and ODL Practitioners who want to build on their knowledge and practice in teaching and learning. It will run over four weeks and requires approximately three to five hours of time each week. Designed to accommodate learners’ busy schedules, the course offers flexibility with options for learning the content. You will learn from readings, videos, discussions with other participants and instructors, meaningful exercises, and quizzes. Certification is available for those who wish to complete all required exercises and quizzes.

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