User:Tsemane/Project

=Open Educational Resources=

Introduction
The College and the Ministry of Education are involved in a Project in partnership with COL to produce open education materials.

Objectives
The aim of the Project is to increase access to education through and contribute toward improving the learner achievement through:


 * 1) The development of high quality OERs
 * 2) Professional development of teachers to increase the effective use of technology in classrooms
 * 3) Development of learner support materials for teachers

Use of Materials
The materials will be used to support secondary level education across the country and across institutions offering education at this level. The five other countries that are involved in this project are Botswana, Seychelles, Trinidad and Tobago, India, Namibia and Lesotho. Each country has been given some subjects to develop and Botswana is developing materials for Geography and HSB.

Project Duration
The lifespan of this Project is from 14 – 16 months and it is divided in two phases. The first phase will be developing the print based materials while the second phase will be dealing with the development of online materials.

Project Team Composition
The Team responsible for implementing this Project is comprised of BOCODOL officers, curriculum development offices from CD&E and some teachers from three different schools as follows;

Masego Bagopi	BOCODOL	Country Coordinator Lekopanye Tladi	BOCODOL	Assistant CC and to lead the development of multi-media components Eric Setabo	BOCODOL	To lead the Editing process and member of Country Mgmt Committee (CMC) Jane Dikinya	BOCODOL	Team Manager (Geog) and CMC Member Dikeme Kgamanyane	BOCODOL	Team Manager (HSB) and CMC member Dr Colwasi Mthunzi	CD & E	Writer (Geog) and member of CMC Mr BS Thebe	CD& E	Writer (Geog) Mr S Maiketso	Lob Sec	Writer (Geog) Mr G Sekobye	Moeding College	Writer (HSB) Mr P Kalanke	Naledi Sec, School	Writer (HSB) Ms N Tau	CD&E	Writer (HSB) Mr AZ Ntuma	BOCODOL	On standby incase the amount of work demands that he be part of the team

Steering Committee
At the highest level this Project is coordinated by the Steering Committee which is made up of the Heads of Institutions and COL. Botswana is represented by Dr Tau assisted by the Director Curriculum Mr Ratsatsi. With regards to COL the Project falls under Ms Fereira’s portfolio.

Progress
The Project has started and team members of the two subject teams have been identified. The ED has written to the School heads where the teachers are coming from to inform them about the Project and also to ask for the release of the teachers to participate in the Project. To date two School-heads have responded positively and we are still to follow up the Moeding School-head. A meeting was also held last week to brief the Director Curriculum as he was not able to attend the Steering Committee meeting held last year. The College has not yet signed the contract with the potential writers awaiting the submission of the recommendations from the CMC to the Director Programmes

The Country Management Committee has been meeting and so far has been able to work on the budget and the Country Action Plan (CAP) and to go through the Agreement which is now with the College for signing. The PDCs have started working on the course blueprints they also visited the regions to get feedback on the two courses.

The CMC is currently making preparations for the first workshop which will be held from the 16 –27th February 2009. All the 12 people listed in the table will be attending the workshop. The purpose of the workshop is to prepare the country team for the work that they are to do. The consultant that has been identified to facilitate the workshop is Alison Mead and the CMC has been working closely with her.

A second workshop to train the Team on developing online materials is expected to come after about six months.

Funding
The Project is funded by the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation/COL. As already stated a budget was submitted and it is to cover the following major areas:
 * The $800 incentives for participants
 * Meals for the workshop
 * Transport costs for participants during the workshops
 * Hotel Accommodation and meals where necessary
 * Equipment rental and stationery
 * Outsourcing of experts