From May 11th to 14th, about twenty participants (GoGIN team, ICC, CRESMAO, CRESMAC and ARSTM representatives) have been introduced and trained on the initial version of the online learning management system TESS. The session was conducted by Edouardo Perdido from the EDISOFT-EDUdigital consortium.
TESS is designed to support a set of training resources and courses dedicated to the Yaoundé Architecture (YA) created around the Moodle software, one of the most used learning management systems in the world, be it within the academic or business sectors. The definition of its specifications is the result of a joint elaboration between the GoGIN team and a group of representatives from regional maritime centres and universities.
After the contract award by the EDISOFT-EDUdigital consortium, dialogue was further strengthened to ensure that the tool development best responds to the needs.
Twenty participants selected amongst the GoGIN team and the regional centres and universities (ICC, CRESMAO, CRESMAC, ARSTM) have been able to test the first version. The IT development team elaborated the training material and held distance training sessions during 4 days (May 11th to 14th), where mornings were dedicated to the presentation and demonstrations of TESS and afternoons to hands-on learning on a training version of TESS.
The participants were first familiarised with the full training cycle and the precise role of it’s different stakeholders (educational coordinator, course coordinator, teacher, delegate, guest, etc.), the settings of each role being very rich and flexible. Then the participants were able to test each role by following a very well done users guide step by step, enabling them to go through the whole cycle of a course development and apprehend the different activities (forum, test, wiki, quizz, survey, etc.) and available resources.
The development of TESS is currently in its final stage and the taskforce will meet end of July to approve the final version. A training programme is being elaborated combining e-learning and classroom courses for the future training managers. In parallel, the first course modules developed with help of previous training material, are progressively being put on line by GoGIN experts and instructors from the YA centres. Indeed, TESS will be used without delay for trainings/practice sessions that will progressively resume as country specific travel restrictions are lifted.
The governance of TESS is meanwhile being considered by the members of the Yaoundé Architecture. For the sake of facilitating regional cooperation and collaboration between administrations, the GoGIN team will give its full support to the considerations so that the tool can be fully deployed and used on time.