Commonwealth Computer Navigator's Certificate

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About
Coinciding with Software Freedom Day 2006 (16 September), Sir John Daniel, President and CEO of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), announced plans to institute the Commonwealth Computer Navigator's Certificate (CCNC). This COL initiative will widen access to ICT skills training using free software and will be distributed as free content for anyone to use, modify and distribute.

Inspired by the nautical history of the small island states that constitute half the Commonwealth's membership, the Navigator's certificate will equip many prospective learners on their voyage to become full participants in our knowledge society. It will be closely associated with the Virtual University for Small States of the Commonwealth ( www.col.org/vussc), whose creation COL is facilitating on behalf of 24 small states. "Free content is a new miracle in education" said Sir John. "We must dispel the myth that developing societies can't participate equally in virtual methods of educational design and delivery. We can do this by creating more opportunities to acquire the prerequisite ICT skills, thereby throwing a wide bridge across the digital divide".

This page is for all information relating to the Commonwealth Computer Navigator's Certificate (CCNC) project. This is a useful page for project developers and stakeholders, as it provides links to project milestones, templates, tools and guidelines.

Related info available at

 * Sir John Daniel announces Commonwealth Computer Navigator's Certificate
 * Discussion Forum
 * Free content CCNC Funding Proposal - for adding value to COL's initial investment to reconfigure the Open ICDL materials.
 * Development area for the CCNC Modules - CCNC Home Page.

Approach
We've learned from experience that the notion of "Build it and they will come" simply does not work. COL's approach is to start with a blank slate thus ensuring the freedom of the community to participate in the planning and development of this project. We have adopted the open source philosophy of releasing both early and frequently.

The project plan has evolved and been refined over the past few months. This is a community project and we need your help to ensure its success. This is an open invitation to anyone who has an interest in this project - you can edit this page right now!

Module coordinators
A module coordinator has been assigned to lead development of each module:


 * Module 1 - Concepts of IT: Indira Gandhi National Open University, India
 * Module 2 - Using the computer and managing files: Indira Gandhi National Open University, India
 * Module 3 - Word processing: Peter Rawsthorne, Instructional Designer, Canada
 * Module 4 - Spreadsheets: UWIDEC, Jamaica
 * Module 5 - Database: Peter Rawsthorne, Instructional Designer, Canada
 * Module 6 - Presentation: University of the Western Cape, South Africa
 * Module 7 - Information and communication: World Campus, Pennsylvania State University
 * The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand is leading the instructional design on the project in collaboration with the founding module coordinators.

This is a global development involving Africa, Asia, the Carribean, North America and the Pacific.

Project Pages

 * Overview and description
 * Project Plan
 * Development questions
 * Links to instructional design templates and guidelines
 * Unit Standards
 * CCNC Review meeting - Vancouver, 27 - 29 June 2007
 * Reflections about the project
 * /CCNC Meeting, Vancouver 16 May 2008 - Task list

Additional Development guidelines and tools
These guidelines and tools are specified outcomes of the CCNC Review meeting, held in Vancouver, 27 - 29 June 2007.


 * Useful review templates - to be used for ongoing developmental review while refining materials
 * Multimedia guidelines for CCNC

Software decisions
The ICDL is vendor independent, however the CCNC will base its examples on the following software:


 * 1) Open Office V2.0
 * 2) Firefox Browser V2.0
 * 3) Evolution email client V2.8.X
 * 4) Ubuntu 7.04 (Edgy Eft)

This is packaged as "standard" with the Ubuntu desktop release. CCNC developers are requested to download and install Ubuntu 8.10, which contains all the software listed above.

Design requirement - where possible to design learning materials in a way that facilitates easy upgrading for new software releases.

Milestones

 * Milestone 1: Establishing the project - 15 February 2007
 * Milestone 2: Complete procedures for local certification - Ongoing, for 2008 Academic year
 * Milestone 3: SWOT analysis of existing Open ICDL materials - 28 February 2007
 * Milestone 4: Research and proposal for instructional design template - 15 March 2007
 * Milestone 5: Detailed Callibration of the project roles for Module coordinators and participants - 15 March 2007
 * Milestone 6: Communication of the development strategy and supporting resources - 30 March 2007
 * Milestone 7: Module development - 5 Modules by 30 June; 7 Modules by 15 August 2007
 * Milestone 8: Editing and testing - 15 September 2007
 * Milestone 9: Packaging of materials for eLearning format - 15 October 2007
 * Milestone 10: Pilot testing of the materials - 15 May 2007
 * Milestone 11: Evaluation and review - 30 September 2007
 * Milestone 12: Adapt and refine materials - 15 November 2007
 * Milestone 13: Final release of materials - 30 November 2007
 * Milestone 14: Summative Evaluation Review - 15 February 2008

People

 * Wayne Mackintosh aka Mackiwg, from the Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver Canada.
 * Patricia Schlicht aka pschlicht, from the Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver Canada.
 * Juliet Stoltenkamp aka Juliet, from the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa.
 * Sue Dark aka sdark, from The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand, Wellington, New Zealand.
 * James Kariuki aka Karitz, from the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa.
 * Stewart Marshall stewartmar, from The University of the West Indies, Barbados.
 * Ken Udas aka KenUdas, from the Pennsylvania State University, USA
 * Pankaj Khare Pankaj. from Indira Gandhi National Open University, India
 * Uma Kanjilal ukanjilal, from Indira Gandhi National Open University, India
 * Thembelani Ngenelwa aka Tngenelwa, from the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa.
 * Olabisi Kuboni, UWI Distance Education Centre (UWIDEC), St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
 * Ayles-Anne Wilson, University of Trinidad and Tobago (working with UWIDEC team).
 * Carolynne Kies, aka Carolynnek. from the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa.
 * Larry Ragan LarryRagan from The Pennsylvania State University, USA.
 * Kitt Camplese from The Pennsylvania State University, USA.
 * Nancy Hallberg, aka NancyHallberg from The Pennsylvania State University, USA.
 * Ng Wai Kong from Wawasan Open University, Malaysia.
 * Marnisya Rahim from Wawasan Open University, Malaysia.
 * Marsyitah Ismail from Wawasan Open University, Malaysia.
 * Peter Rawsthorne, aka prawstho, from Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada.
 * Tasneem Taliep-Davids aka Tasneem, from the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa
 * Norina Finger aka Norina, from the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa
 * Cheryl Brown aka CherylBrown from the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand

News

 * The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand starts work on the CNCC- 14 February 2007
 * The South African Qualifications Authority develops Standards for CCNC- 30th May 2007
 * HRD (Moodle Partner, and authorised ICDL courseware provider) actively take over development of 5 CCNC modules - 1st October 2008

Links
Sites to visit during the planning phase:


 * OpenICDL
 * http://www.icdl-unesco.org/default.htm (from Claude Martin)
 * http://www.theingots.org
 * Images for computer keyboard layouts - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Keyboard_layouts
 * Howto create screenmovies on Ubuntu