PillarA RegionalTrainings

Coordination and Implementation of Regional Trainings

• Selection and sub-contracting of co-trainers in regional trainings (possibly some of them are also part of the content creation community)
• Invitations to apply for the trainings (through already identified contacts and an open call for participants)
• Selection of the training institutes and trainers, that apply to participate in regional trainings + definition of selection criteria. Among the criteria of participants will be (1) their outreach ability, i.e. how likely it is that they can pass on the knowledge gained in the trainings to others in the roll-out of the programme and (2) each course should contain a mix of business and IT focussed persons (if possible, each application should contain a "tandem of business / technical trainer" per training institution)

• Design and structuring of courses for regional trainings

The courses should:

• • take a blended learning approach with a combination of on-site training and online follow up (requiring only occasional Internet access)
  • be practical and hands-on, involving „real-life“ problems, issues and scenarios to communicate course content
  • create a community of practice through the course design (collaborative projects), in phase 2 community of FOSS trainers, in phase 3 community of FOSS business persons (see below national follow ups and networking)
  • allow for and encourage open, critical discussion
  • involve practical, joint assignments
  • allow for and stimulate exchange during the trainings

• Three regional trainings in different locations are to be conducted during 2009 (possible also late 2008). One training course will take approximately two weeks. Suggested countries for on-site trainings include: South Africa, Kenia, Uganda or Ethiopia.
• The regional trainings take place consecutively in a set time frame to enable networking and knowledge exchange amongst the participants – participants from different on-site courses will be motivated to work together virtually.
• Each of the courses will be followed by a four week online learning process with concrete assignments to be completed in a (virtual) team work situation. These follow-ups will be closely accompanied and tutored by the Pillar A coordinator.
• Collaboration and networking is to be promoted through such joint projects and twinning of participants from different groups. The online follow-up process will foster further learning, knowledge exchange and open discussions (via the programme portal)
• One of the assignments will be collaborative work on the training materials, adapting them to the local contexts. This way, the training participants (= future trainers) learn how to work with OER, become part of the Content Creation community, and assume ownership for their localized version of the training materials. Another assignment could be designing a business plan for an example project.

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