Capacity Building Programme on eContent Development to Deliver Digitally at Open School Unit, Bangladesh Open University (BOU), Bangladesh
New Delhi, 23 January, 2016: Commonwealth Educational Media Center for Asia (CEMCA) supported and organised a training programme on capacity building of the teachers and IT staff of BOU on eContent Development from 19-23 January, 2016, at the eLearning Center, BOU, in collaboration with Open School, BOU. Started with an introduction, the participants engaged in the 5-day hands on training to develop and manage eContents to deliver digitally. A total of 31 participants actively participated in the workshop where 27 were academics and 4 were IT staffs. Gender equality principle has been maintained while choosing the participants. Among the participants, 13 were females and rests were males. Most of the participants were from the Open School and few from Business school and rests from eLearning Center of BOU.
With direct support and inspiration of the Vice Chancellor of BOU Professor Dr. M A Mannan, the Open School of BOU organized the workshop in technical support of the eLearning Center BOU. In the introductory session of the workshop, the Director of eLearning Center Professor Mostafa Azad Kamal formally welcomed the resource persons Dr. Manas Ranjan Panigrahi from CEMCA and Mr. Ashutosh Taunk, H T Media and introduced them to the participants in the workshop. Subsequently, the Dean of the Open School Professor Sadia Afroze Sultana explained the objectives and importance of the workshop. Joint Director (training) and Director, Planning and Development Dr. Md. Shafiqul Alam said that this is the first step in the university to introduce eLearning and offer courses online to the learners of Bangladesh. Following a brief introductory session, the business session of the workshop has been started with a presentation by Mr. Ashutosh Taunk on eLearning and emerging educational technologies. Mr. Ashutosh then continued to project the features of Moodle as a Learning Management System (LMS). In the afternoon session, the participants were engaged in browsing a demo Moodle-based online course. Then, the participants started to practice the various features of Moodle required to develop their eContents.
On the second day of the workshop, Dr. Manas Ranjan Panigrahi facilitated a daylong session on using and development of OER. After a detailed discussion on the concepts relating to OER and various open licenses, the participants were engaged in development of an OER in OER Commons. The session was ended with a strong commitment for OER development at BOU. The 3rd and 4th day of the workshop was very much engaging. The participants worked intensively along with the resource person to dig deeper into Moodle and thereby, upload their eContents into Moodle.
The workshop was concluded on 23 January, 2016 at the eLearning Center BOU on the main campus Gazipur. Vice Chancellor Professor Dr. M A Mannan was the chief guest in the concluding ceremony and distributed the certificates among the participants and expressed his desire in his speech that this training has definitely enhanced the capability of the faculties to develop eLearning Courses. He further said that BOU is the only distance learning university in Bangladesh which needs to enhance its technical capability to cope with the current demand for education and training. He was so impressed with the output of the workshop when he saw the eContents designed and developed by randomly chosen participants. Among others Professor Dr. Md. Abu Taher, Treasurer, BOU, spoke in the occasion. Mr. Tauhidul Islam of eLearning Center showed and demonstrates the newly installed Moodle LMS and the platform through which online courses will be offered. Deans and high officials of the university were present in the ceremony.
