Supporting Teachers Moving Online, Using a MOOC, During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Authors

  • Tony John Mays Commonwealth of Learning https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3506-8497
  • Betty Ogange Commonwealth of Learning
  • Som Naidu Technology, Education and Design Associates
  • Kirk Perris Commonwealth of Learning

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.56059/jl4d.v8i1.497

Keywords:

COVID-19, teaching, online, OER, MOOC

Abstract

Following campus closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many Ministries of Education around the world requested teachers to move their teaching online. This case study reflects on how the Commonwealth of Learning responded to requests from two countries to provide support in pedagogical and curricular change for online learning in this process. A Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platform was used to upskill 11,568 teachers in two regions of the Commonwealth. Analytics from within the course, together with pre-, mid- and end- course surveys of participants’ perceptions indicated that while there was, and is scope for improvement, the short course largely reached its objective of providing immediate support on an introductory level and that the approach adopted was largely appropriate for the purpose.

Author Biographies

Tony John Mays, Commonwealth of Learning

Dr Tony Mays is Education Specialist for Open Schooling at the Commonwealth of Learning. Email: tmays@col.org 

Betty Ogange, Commonwealth of Learning

Dr Betty Ogange is Education Specialist for Teacher Education at the Commonwealth of Learning. Email: bogange@col.org 

Som Naidu, Technology, Education and Design Associates

Dr Som Naidu is Principal Associate (Technology, Education and Design Associates), and Executive Editor of the journal Distance Education (https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cdie20/current). He is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7480-8120.
Email: sommnaidu@gmail.com

Kirk Perris, Commonwealth of Learning

Dr Kirk Perris is Education Adviser at the Commonwealth of Learning. Email: kperris@col.org 

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Published

2021-03-18

How to Cite

Mays, T. J., Ogange, B., Naidu, S., & Perris, K. (2021). Supporting Teachers Moving Online, Using a MOOC, During the COVID-19 Pandemic . Journal of Learning for Development, 8(1), 27–41. https://doi.org/10.56059/jl4d.v8i1.497

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 1 (2021): ISSUE 1

Section

Invited Articles

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Received 2021-02-01
Accepted 2021-02-26
Published 2021-03-18