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The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) is supporting Guyana’s National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD) – the agency responsible for in-service teacher professional development – to strengthen its capacity to develop materials and offer teacher professional development online.
The support enabled 24 Education Officers successfully to complete a series of online workshops and post-workshop activities designed to prepare them to develop and facilitate short, professional development courses online. As a result of the training, NCERD has converted 15 teacher professional development courses and made them available on the COL-provided Moodle platform. Seven additional courses will be added by the end of 2002.
Director of NCERD, Quenita Walrond Lewis, applauded the initiative saying, “Officers have responded enthusiastically to the training opportunities that COL has provided; NCERD is pleased to have been able to deliver on the important mandate of making our training materials available online so that teachers can self-select their professional development experiences based on their own perceived needs. This unique experience is another NCERD first for the sector!”
To sustain the training, seven NCERD officers were selected as lead trainers and then completed a short coaching course at the end of September. The coaching component prepared them to train and provide ongoing support to their colleagues in designing, developing and teaching online courses.
According to Dr Mairette Newman, COL Education Specialist: VUSSC, “Assisting NCERD to realise their vision to offer training programmes online has been an honour; we’re excited to see them expand their in-person, onsite training courses so teachers can now access professional learning through the Moodle platform.”
