The Ministry of Education and Sports recently drafted its 2022-2026 Digital Education Agenda to leverage the utilisation of ICT in education. This digital strategy serves to develop an integrated direction in which ICT shall facilitate teaching, learning, and management of service delivery in the education sector. It also aims to support the continuity of learning especially during disruptions (emergencies or disasters) such as the COVID-19 pandemic which has led to the closure of schools.  

With this in mind, the Teacher Training and Education (TTE) project is implementing this agenda to popularize hybrid education in the National Teachers’ Colleges (NTCs). In May 2021, Enabel launched the EduHack; a series of co-creation workshops with the NTC teacher trainers. During the First EduHack, NTC lecturers were introduced to different Learning Management Systems (LMS) and were instructed to identify and select the most appropriate LMS for the teacher colleges. A popular Learning Management System called Moodle was selected.   

A Learning Management system is a software application for administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, automation and delivery of education courses or training programmes. It is also known as a software used to administer courses to learners or a web-based system that allows learners to register for courses, complete courses and take assessments remotely. Learning Management Systems are mainly used as a complement to other forms of teaching to enable the blended learning approach.   

Due to the shift in trends within the educational sector, learning models have changed in order to absorb the current pressure to innovate and deliver education that is relevant with the times. Some of the factors that have led to the shift include advancement in technology, the emergence of digital natives and migrants, and the COVID-19 pandemic. It is because of some of these factors that having an LMS in the National Teacher’s Colleges is beneficial to those who adopt it in more ways than one.  

Firstly, an LMS is user-friendly and has customized management features that enable users to tailor learning courses for educators and trainers to achieve learning goals. It can be customized to fit the learning institutions’ style and also allows institutions to track the progress of their students and identify areas that need improvement. A Learning Management System is also cost-effective for both administrators and students as all the learning material is uploaded and accessed online. This helps to reduce the printing costs for both beneficiaries since all that the institution needs to ensure is that the content on the site is up-to-date. With regard to students, they can access educational resources at their own convenience and refer to them whenever they see fit.  

For lecturers, an LMS enhances active teaching and learning through knowledge sharing and helps lecturers teach without the limitations of time, pace and venue. It allows lecturers to access teaching material remotely and interact with their students at any given time. 

Bridget Dribareo, a female lecturer from NTC Muni shares her first-time experience navigating a Learning Management System.

“Attending the first EduHack was very rewarding. I learnt that with an LMS, I can conduct live quizzes for my students to assess their knowledge of a given topic, chat directly with them to get feedback and adjust my lessons accordingly.” 

To leverage on this, Enabel installed Moodle as an LMS in the National Teachers’ Colleges with a series of e-learning courses to support 150 NTC staff in the management of Education Institutions. These courses include: Financial Planning, Budgeting and Management, HRM Course, Leadership and management, Gender course and Communication skills. Additionally, the TTE project is procuring cloud hosting for Moodle in all NTCs to ease information access which will require less technical expertise from NTC staff in trying to make it function. This will enable the NTCs to customize their own Moodle websites, brand their own Learning Management Systems and manage them autonomously.

In order to facilitate self-management of the LMS in the NTCs, Enabel has trained teacher trainers and administrators on how to create their own online learning content which has resulted into the opening of 62 Moodle accounts. This way, teacher trainers will be able to navigate Moodle using the different features on the site as they embark on their online content creation journeys.  

Soon, the TTE project plans to pilot an automation link between the Learning Management System and, the Financial and Academic Management Systems to enable staff to compute exam results, fees balances, carry out registrations, file student information and alumni, and avail course timetables.