UNESCO supports the University of Djibouti in establishing an OER-based teacher training course for ICT use in Education for its teaching staff based on the ICT CFT. The course is based on the UNESCO Competency Framework for Teachers and will permit lecturers at the university to better integrate ICT in their teaching and learning practices.  During the opening of the workshop, Ms Zeynep Varoglu, from the Knowledge Societies Division of UNESCO, highlighted the innovative nature of the work of the University of Djibouti, as it represents an example of the implementation of the ICT CFT at the higher education level.

The objective of the workshop was to go through the recommendations of the external review undertaken by the African Virtual University (AVU) to finalize the course and make a plan for its roll out in the 2016/2017 academic year. The African Virtual University made a range of general recommendations in rendering the course more accessible in online and offline environments.  It further provided detailed recommendations on each one of the 18 units, in standardizing the format and including more OERs. The workshop participants, representing all faculties in the university, as well as the Digital Information Centre (Centre de Ressources Informatiques), worked in groups to address the relevant recommendations.  One participant stated that he appreciated the comments provided by the African Virtual University, as it will enrich the content and learning experience of the lecturers during the course roll-out.  Participants also appreciated the opportunity to deepen their knowledge in using a learning management system (LMS).

The course, developed by representatives of the different faculties at the University of Djibouti will be conducted in a blended mode and it takes into account the Integrated Strategic Framework on ICT of Djibouti (Schéma Stratégique Intégré des TIC), the importance of making use of OdEL as delivery mode, but also the need to make use of existing digital platforms and resources developed by the University.  The course is planned to be rolled out in November 2016 and will target more than a 100 staff from the university of Djibouti.

This workshop was the 3rd workshop held in the framework of UNESCO’s support to Djibouti, since November 2015 (the 1st workshop held in November 2015 and focused on developing a national strategy for the project; the 2nd Workshop in January 2016 focused on developing the OER based materials).

This project is implemented in the framework of the ‘ICT CFT Harnessing OER’ project which was launched in 2013 and supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. It aims to harness OER for the ICT Competency Framework for Teachers to contribute to national educational goals for building Knowledge Societies. The initiative falls within UNESCO’s mandate to assist educational planners and teacher training course developers to prepare teachers to make effective use of technology solutions.