MOOCs for in-service teachers: The case of Uganda and lessons for Africa
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Date
2017
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Revista de pedagogia
Abstract
In recent times, computers and internet
have penetrated secondary schools in Africa
but with greater attention to students’ computer
literacy than teachers. At the same time,
previous studies on digital literacy of teachers
are unsustainable and mainly skewed on
pre-service teachers than in-service teachers.
These realities point to the need to investigate
and implement effective and sustainable
initiatives for improving digital literacy and
online life-long learning for in-service teachers
in Africa. This paper therefore presents
a specialised MOOC platform known as
TEP (Teachers’ E-learning Portal) for digital
literacy and online life-long learning for
in-service teachers in Uganda. TEP is built
for environments with inadequate access to
computers, internet and technical assistance.
As such, TEP is accessible online or offline,
managed by accredited local universities
in collaboration with beneficiary secondary
schools, and runs on existing resources in
schools (technical personnel, computers and
internet). Results from initial implementation
of a computer literacy MOOC through
TEP indicate that irrespective of age, when
teachers are adequately supported internally
by their schools and externally by a university,
can improve their digital literacy and subsequently
engage in online life-long learning.
In addition, the results both in terms of high
percentage of teacher participants’ completions
(89%) and high volume of educational
e-content generated, confirm TEP as an effective,
attractive, and self-sustainable MOOC
platform for in-service teachers’ in resource
constraint environments. The paper finishes
with an analysis of the relevance of TEP to
Africa.
Description
Keywords
MOOC, Digital literacy, In-service teachers, Life-long learning, Africa
Citation
Benedict, O. Y. O., KALEMA, B. M., & BYABAZAIRE, J. MOOCs for in-service teachers: The case of Uganda and lessons for Africa. https://doi.org/10.22550/ REP75-1-2017-07