Introduction
The rapid growth of online distance education (ODE) in teacher education brings challenges such as difficulties in upgrading and managing e-learning systems, low student engagement, limited interaction and difficulties in assessment. Many educators struggle to use learning management systems (LMSs) and open educational resources (OERs) effectively. This workshop will help participants identify key challenges, share best practices and work together to find solutions for improving ODE in teacher education.
Description
This four-hour workshop aims to harness the best practices in ODE in teacher education. It will provide a platform for participants from different countries to share their best practices in ODE for teacher education. The objectives of the workshop are as follows:
This workshop will tap into the benefits of metaphors to allow participants to describe their experiences of ODE in teacher education. It will involve group work, think-and-share activities and reflection on practice. A survey will be administered with instant results on best practices and common challenges in the Global South and beyond. The workshop will conclude with a presentation by the facilitators on their own experiences in ODE, highlighting the main findings and proposed recommendations from the workshop. The workshop will conclude with a joint presentation of best practices in context from participants, enabled by the facilitators
Requirements for participants
Facilitators
Dr Auckloo Pritee, senior lecturer, Mauritius Institute of Education, Reduit, Mauritius
Dr Pritee is a senior lecturer at the Mauritius Institute of Education, Mauritius. She is also a Mandela Washington Fellow, Fellow of the Interaction Leadership Programme for Africa, and a TESSA-OLnet Fellow. She led a number of interactive pedagogical projects, including those related to the practice of open educational resources (OERs) and pedagogy, and home school community (including parental education) projects in teacher education. Dr Auckloo Pritee holds a doctoral degree from the University of Brighton, UK, and has followed a number of courses in open and distance learning, including attachments in the USA, UK and India. Currently, she is the programme leader for a fully online degree programme. She has over 23 years of experience in teaching, including at primary, secondary and tertiary level. She focuses on areas of research that include foregrounding contextual realities in an age of inevitable change and transformation, open educational practices in schools, and home school community partnerships and pedagogy in the 21st-century context.
Dr Fawzia Narod, Associate Professor, Mauritius Institute of Education
Associate Prof (Dr) Narod is Head of the Science Education Department at the Mauritius Institute of Education (MIE). In addition to teaching and the coordination of courses and programmes, she is actively engaged in research in education and the development of curricula and curriculum materials. Online and remote teaching and learning, as well as the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in education, feature prominently among her research interests. She has, indeed, been the lead in two completed research projects on online teaching and learning: one in a teacher education institution and one among secondary school educators. She has also participated in conference presentations and published in these fields, and has supervised students’ research projects on the use of ICT in teaching and learning. She has followed several courses, workshops and webinars in online teaching and learning, including Development and Management of Online Learning Environment; Online Learning and Writing of Self-instructional Materials; Interactive Multimedia for Online Learning; and Preparedness for Online Teaching and Assessment in Higher Education in Mauritius: The During COVID-19 and Post-COVID-19 situations. In addition, she has been engaged in ODE in teacher education for several programmes at the MIE. She will contribute to the workshop by sharing her research findings and experiences in ODE and teacher education.
Dr Shireen Panchoo, Associate Professor, University of Technology, Mauritius
Associate Prof (Dr) Shireen Panchoo is Head of the School of Innovative Technologies and Engineering at the University of Technology, Mauritius. With a background in Computer Science and Engineering, she holds a master’s degree from the University of Strasbourg, France, and a PhD from Cergy-Pontoise University, Paris, France. Her research focuses on information and communication technologies (ICT) in education, particularly in online learning environments, digital pedagogy and instructional design for distance education. She has extensive experience in online and distance education (ODE), having served as an online tutor for the University of Cergy-Pontoise, supporting French-speaking students across Africa and Europe. She has led and contributed to several national and international projects on e-learning, social networking in education and online pedagogies. In 2008, she successfully implemented an e-learning platform as part of a blended learning system at the Higher College of Technology in Oman. Dr Panchoo regularly presents her research at international conferences and is actively engaged in developing innovative teaching strategies for ODE. She teaches and supervises research in areas such as educational technology, e-education, the flipped classroom, new pedagogies, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) and information systems. With her expertise in designing and enhancing online learning experiences, she brings valuable insights into best practices, challenges and solutions in online and distance education.
