MG Online Course Manager's Training

The SSIP programme will favour a bichronous delivery mode as many teachers still need engagements with the facilitators and their peers. Many teachers still need to get to grips with certain aspects of the content and would rely on the facilitator. The benefit of this mode will assist us in monitoring the teachers' interaction with content. The pre- and post test on the system will report on their performance.
The downside of this model teachers can click on content and not sure of whether they really interacted with the material.

Most Leadership programme could benefit from bichronous delivery, given the fact that we have been getting a lot of feedback from SMT's indicating how they struggle to concentrate during training due to the day-to-day challenges of having to manage schools during Covid. Often they are distracted during training, so you do not always have their full attention. Setting up certain tasks to be completed when they are less busy could be a win-win for both of us. Having said, there are a number of programmes that require onsite interventions and I do not see how these could be achieved without engaging on a face-to-face level.

For most School Governing Body (SGB) programmes, a blended approach would be better.At a certain point you need to meet the SGB members face-fo-face as some cannot use gadget. As for a programme like school Financial management, we can use both the blended and bichronous approaches. A lot of participants in the Finance committees are on a high literacy level and both approaches can be used.

The advantages of the use of technology is that you can reach a lot of people at the same time and in our case it is cheaper. You can use few facilitators for a large number of participants. We save a lot on catering and facilitation fees.

The disadvantage is that in terms of active participation, there is limitations. Unless the numbers are the same as in a face-to-face session, the participation is limited. In the case of SGB members feedback is through the feedback forms only. Activities are also limited as most participants may not be good at using ICT gadgets

In my opinion and considering the nature of the programmes I envision being responsible for in the future, I would definitely promote the use of the bichronous approach. My only concern is how notional hours spent on learning and activities would be logged. I assume I would have to go the route of a manual log of hours but this could be inaccurate if not automatically tracked. I am a strong believer in the value of human interaction and COP's when it comes to learning and hence see the dire need for a facilitator to start off the process and provide direction and guidance whilst laying the foundation for learning. The trainees could thereafter interact with readings on the online platform and complete their PoE's online as well as they interact with the content. I also like the idea of the break away rooms for group discussions and all of this combined would act to enhance the quality of learning and assist in the productive achievement of the intended goals.

Blended learning will work for the constituency of School Governance because the SGBs have a diverse educational background, from those who cannot read and write to professionals. RCLs also come from schools that have and are using the latest technology for teaching and learning to farm and other disadvantaged schools with minimal infrastructure.

I think cloud blended approach will be suitable for teacher development considering that teachers have limited time to attend to professional development including contact sessions that are at times planned for after school. however , the main limitation of the online facilitation in the blend is the availability of ICT resources and connectivity.