Washington DC (US), May 2010 - The mission of the World Bank Institute (WBI) includes enhancing institutional capacity in developing countries, with a focus on core sectors such as education, health, urban management, etc. Sheila Jagannathan and Michelle Duvall Kalinski, Course Coordinators at the Institute, will present the ongoing efforts in the education sector at eLearning Africa 2010.
For nearly a decade, in the education sector, WBI has been delivering its flagship face-to- face course on "Strategic Choices for Education Reform", designed for professionals who are already heavily engaged in policy planning and implementation. While experienced and educated in their field, many participants have demonstrated a need to review analytical skills in statistics and economics in order to fully benefit from the concepts presented in the course, as well as to more effectively analyze and implement policies in their countries.
In response to this need, WBI developed an eLearning series composed of three parts. "Introduction to Education Statistics and Indicators" sharpens participants' knowledge and skills to become more effective and informed consumers of data, while "Economics of Education for Policymakers (Parts 1 and 2)" cover economic concepts as they apply to the education sector.
The learning materials are developed in a format that is modular and easily customizable for different types of stakeholders, countries, and regions. This series is offered in English and French, with Spanish, Arabic, and Russian versions in production.
Through this eLearning series, WBI is able to provide "in-service training" simultaneously to professionals in government ministries worldwide, as well as to training institutions, non-governmental organizations, and bilateral and multilateral organizations such as UNICEF.
Over the last two years, WBI has established a partnership with UNICEF to provide a customized training program for its education field officers. This training program, which centers on this eLearning series, was developed by WBI based on the training needs identified by UNICEF and as a prerequisite for the face-to-face course mentioned above.
Although these eLearning courses have reached participants in nearly all regions of the world, the greatest demand and interest among the regions has come from Africa. To date, over 500 participants have taken at least one part of this series, roughly 35% of whom work in or with African governments. While this is significant, such a program could make even more progress in building capacity with the support of regional partners.
WBI is in the process of developing partnerships in Sub-Saharan Africa with institutions that will serve as regional centers for the delivery of online training. These institutions have more direct access to education sector actors who would benefit from this training, and through the partnership, could themselves benefit from increased capacity to offer training via eLearning. These partnerships could also ultimately serve as a foundation for learning networks and communities of practice across the African continent and across sectors.
At the Conference, we will be presenting the WBI experience, including our partnership with UNICEF, the unique lessons that we have learned regarding the design, facilitation and management of eLearning courses designed for a public sector audience, as well as the potential benefits of regional partnerships in Africa to foster capacity development through eLearning.
