To develop the technical and pedagogical competence of teachers with moderate to high computer literacy, to be able to teach online in manners appropriate to their particular context. This competence can be applied both in distance teaching as well as to include online tools in face-to-face teaching.

The participants are guided to find or create high-quality information and activity sources applicable for teaching a topic of their choice online. They are guided to upload these to a communication platform of their choice and implement and reflect on an online lesson on this topic.

At the end of this SLP, the participants should be able to:

• source and share online information and activity resources, and evaluate these critically in terms of relevant pedagogical principles

• manage an online learning management platform of their choice

• manage electronic storage appropriately

• create, implement and reflect on an online lesson.

The SLP consists of 8 modules:

1. Introduction: This course exposes the teachers to resources which can be used in online teaching. They participate in a discussion forum about the resources they are already using, and their experiences with these. They choose two resources to briefly explore.

2. Pedagogy: This section exposes the teachers to a few pedagogical principles for teaching with technology. They engage with examples illustrating these principles and apply the principles in discussion forums related to these examples. They then have to answer a self-marking quiz to test their comprehension of this module and to reflect on their experiences in the discussion forums.

3. Communication platforms: This module introduces teachers to various communication platforms. They choose one, preferably the learning management system which their school has set up (if this is available). They set up a class in this platform and post screenshots of this as evidence.

4. Sourcing information: The teachers learn how to search effectively in Google and YouTube, and to explore websites and videos applicable to the subject they teach. They have to choose a topic to teach, and one text and one video resource for teaching this topic. They then evaluate these against the relevant pedagogical principles presented in Module 2 and upload these sources to the communication platform they identified in Module 3.

5. Sourcing activities: The teachers explore websites and applications which can be used to create activities or have ready-made activities. They choose/create one activity relevant to the teaching of the topic they chose in Module 4, and evaluate this activity against the pedagogical principles presented in Module 2. They then upload the activity to the communication platform identified in Module 3.

6. File management: This module shows the teachers good file management techniques. It exposes them to various ways of storing and sharing information and explains the significance of file sizes.

7. Creating resources: The teachers explore ways to create online resources.

8. Implement and reflect: The teachers implement the lessons they have developed over Modules 3-7 and reflect on its success against the principles discussed in Module 2

 

• Participants must teach in the Free State, and not currently be registered for the UFS Euclidean Geometry SLP

• Participants need some access to the internet and be fairly computer literate

• After registering, participants will receive instructions via email or Whatsapp. The instructions are about the setting up of a Google account and accessing Google Classroom.

• All the learning material for the SLP will be accessible through this website and Google Classroom.

• With some exceptions, each module will have four components:

  1. A list of learning outcomes

  2. A brief explanation of the information to be learnt, with links to resources with more information

  3. Structured and unstructured discussion forums; and

  4. An assignment the participant must complete and submit on Google Classroom before proceeding.

• The facilitators will encourage participants to ask for help on the discussion forums and to help one another on these forums. They will also monitor these forums and provide help. Additionally, a helpline will be available during office hours.

• Participants can work at their own pace, although suggested deadlines for each module will be provided. The guideline is that a maximum of two weeks should be spent on each module, making this a 16-week course.

• One of the facilitators will assess each of the end-of-module tasks formatively. They will give individual feedback to the participant within a week.

• To determine whether the participant passes the SLP or not, the facilitators will assess some of the end-of-module tasks summatively.

• The final task (module 8), in which the participant finalise, implement, and reflect on the lesson created throughout the earlier modules, weighs 50% of the final mark. The relative weightings of the assignments for modules 1-7 (together weighing 50%), can be seen here.

• A certificate will be issued to participants who pass the course (50% or higher), with distinction (75% or higher) mentioned where appropriate.

The time needed will differ from person to person, but in general you should be prepared to devote 5 hours a week for 16 weeks.

Much of this time will be spent preparing, implementing and reflecting on a lesson of your choice, so you can see this as part of your teaching time.

Click here to fill in a registration form