Learning4Content Zambia/The L4C learning contract

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Building capacity for open education together

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Our OER partnership agreement

Image courtesy of Gaetan Lee

The L4C Learning Contract is the working agreement between each L4C workshop participant and the WikiEducator community.

The L4C Learning Contract defines your learning goals and how they will be accomplished. It is also an essential building block in establishing your reputation among your new community of WikiEducators; building a base of wiki skills; and following through on your commitment to contributing free content to the community.

We're counting on you! Please follow through on your commitments!

A community approach rooted in education

Much of WikiEducator's focus is on community-building. We're here to support you to achieve your goals - while you help us achieve our goal of a free education curriculum by 2015. Simply put, we want to work with all educators in the formal, non-formal and informal sectors who share our vision, believe in our values and are willing to contribute a knowledge resource back to the community.

The learning contract represents your pledge to donate a little of your knowledge for the benefit of education for all. In return, the WikiEducator community promises to support you in your journey to acquire wiki editing skills and to experience our peer-based model for developing open education resources. Our community will also certify new WikiEducators who request certification of their skills under the L4C initiative.

Elements of our learning contract

There are four key elements in the L4C Learning Contract:

1. Requirements or learning objectives - what you are going to learn
2. Resources and strategies - how you are going to learn
3. Evidence of Learning - how you will know that you have learned it
4. Verification - how you will prove that you have learned

Requirements

Objectives

You will learn the basic skills to become a competent WikiEducator and successful developer of free teaching materials By signing the Learning Contract, each L4C participant agrees to: Master the basic editing skills to acquire the status of Wikibuddy. (The skills are specified in our Learning Contract. You may also see these online - Providing evidence of Learning. Actively participate in our support groups / online discussions which are available for your learning. Complete the learning activities in the tutorials. Complete your free content resource / learning materials in the prescribed time.

Resources and Strategies

The WikiEducator community provides the training materials and facilitated support required to successfully complete the requirements specified in your L4C Learning Contract. These resources and support strategies include:

• Free self-study tutorials - you can work through these at your own pace
• An online mailing list - you can ask questions and get additional support from our community
• An OER workshop toolkit - to help facilitators prepare and present L4C workshops in the field
• A series of online workshops - facilitated by an experienced WikiEducator. (Note: WE will schedule at least one online workshop per calendar month.)
• Face-to-face (in-country) workshops - to be hosted by partner institutions (i.e.,as their contribution to developing and supporting open education.)

Evidence of your Learning

Observe Your Progress! WikiEducator gives you an up-to-the-minute update for community project and editing activities.'

On every WikiEducator page (in the left-hand Navigation Bar), you will see a link to a unique page called Recent Changes. This special webpage tracks every edit that you (and everyone else makes). It is based on powerful edit-tracking software that enables L4C participants to observe your progress, And, it provides direct evidence of your activities within WikiEducator itself! Check your progress frequently!

Thanks to this software, in the event that you inadvertently change someone's page., we can easily fix it.

Remember there are No Mistakes on WikiEducator. Only Opportunities for Learning!

Demonstrate Your Mastery

...Towards Becoming a WikiBuddy You will demonstrate various levels mastery of basic text formatting and layout - on your User Page. This includes the following: Apprentice Level 1 - Creating and account and basic text formatting - approx. 3 hours of learning). Apprentice Level 2 - Links, new pages and images - approx. 2 hours of learning) WikiBuddy - Communication tools and pedagogical templates - approx. 2 - 3 hours of learning). Please use WikiEducator's Tutorials to help guide you. Be sure to contact your Workshop Facilitator and WikiNeighbours when you need help and support.

Validating Evidence of Your Learning

Your Workshop Facilitator will validate your learning by affixing the WikiBuddy Certification on your User Page.

Dynamic Apprenticeship Model

WikiEducator's Apprenticeship Model enables your achievements to be validated by a peer WikiEducator. (WE benefit greatly from our experienced users who like to share their knowledge with newcomers who want to develop their (wiki) skills.) After you attain WikiBuddy status (approx. 8 hours of learning), you can move onto becoming a WikiMaster

Remember, there are many roles in our community - from editors to designers to wiki experts. When you welcome newcomers into our community, you are a WikiEducator Neighbour, and when you tell the world about WikiEducator, you are a WikiEducator Ambassador!!

Learning Contracts and Supporting Documentation

• Learning4Content Learning Contract - Download in Open Office format
• Learning4Content Learning Contract - Download in pdf format
• WikiEducator's Tutorials
• Recent Changes - Shortcut to Recent Changes on WikiEducator