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Learning Guide
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Learning Guide
The forums .......................................................................................................................................................................... 3 The thematic forum .......................................................................................................................................................... 3 Teamwork forum .............................................................................................................................................................. 4 The Social forum................................................................................................................................................................ 4 Question forums ................................................................................................................................................................ 5 Implementation of the course ....................................................................................................................................... 5 Responsibilities of those involved in the learning process ................................................................................... 7 The role of the course director ...................................................................................................................................... 7 The role of the technical pedagogical coordinator (TPC) ...................................................................................... 8 The participant's actions................................................................................................................................................. 8 Teaching resources and materials ............................................................................................................................... 9 Assessment of the participants ................................................................................................................................... 10
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The forums
In the virtual classroom the communication process becomes especially important and learning and understanding benefit from all the course's participants communicating with each another. The forums are a privileged area to foster communication and socialisation. The forums will be different depending on their purpose. The course will feature "thematic forums", "teamwork forums", "the coffee house" and possibly a "queries forum".
The thematic forum
This will be a thematic meeting point or a place for theoretic-conceptual socialisation. Participants will be able to explain, debate or disagree on topics that are being studied in the thematic forums. They are a space that enables the thematic field and the perspective of knowledge relating to the subject-matter of the course to be expanded, which is possible thanks to the contributions of the course's attendants, who expand and enrich the branch of knowledge.
The "thematic forums" are generally intended for questions that aim to provoke a reaction from the participants with regard to the different areas of study. Two "thematic forums" will be available to the participants throughout the course. The "thematic forum" is the space that excels at enriching understanding through everyone's contributions and fosters discussion relating to the topics being studied. The participants in the thematic forums play a leading role. For example:
ďƒź They prepare and present their contributions. Their contributions must be short and focused. The participants may make several contributions in a forum and they are
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expected to not only put forward their points of view, but to also take note of the contributions of others in order to make comments. ďƒź Contributions developed personally will be given preference over those that are limited to merely copying pre-existing texts. (e.g. legal texts). ďƒź The questions that the forum opens with are related to the topic in question and discussions relating to topics that do not fall within the context at hand must be avoided. ďƒź The forum must be closed with a summary of the questions that were under discussion. The tutor may request some of the course's participants to perform such summary.
Teamwork forum
The courses academic activity may involve completing tasks in small teams. For this type of activity the participants are split into different groups and are provided with a forum to organise and manage the entire process, which involves completing an objective in each group activity. These forums showcase how those participating in a learning process are invigorated when they take part in activities that involve everyone and require the input of all team members. The principles of correct, efficient, responsible and clear communication are the keys to successful teamwork.
The teamwork forum is the appropriate channel to boost participation in and the organisation of the course's work and activities. In general it will be the tutor who starts the topics to be debated in the forum in order to launch the discussion and debate.
The Social forum
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This is a space that will be open throughout the course; the students will be able to drink a "virtual coffee" or the drink of their preference, and they will be able to talk about different topics, be they personal, cultural, sport-related, etc., depending on the participants' motivation and interests. The idea is that they will be able to interact in a role different from that of addressing the topics of study, thus strengthening both professional and personal relationships.
Question forums
There is a possibility that, at the teacher's/tutor's initiative, a forum may be established in a course, which is specifically designed to answer questions related to any exercise that is to be submitted, software that has been installed for any activity, etc. The teacher/tutor will answer questions within 24 hours. The question forums allow answers to be provided that may be useful for all of the course's participants.
Implementation of the course
The entire course will be provided via the Capacity Building Program Web portal (Trade and Integration Sector) in an asynchronous fashion. The participants will interact with the tutors and the other students using the Virtual Classroom's communication tools at a time of their choosing. There will be no activities that require all the participants to meet face-to-face, or any mandatory activities that require them to connect to the internet at the same time. There is the possibility of a synchronous activity being proposed, but in any case this would be voluntary.
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The course's participants will form a team of up to 40 members (a maximum of 50 during the course Preliminary Activities that deal with learning how to use the platform's tools) who will progress through the course with the support and technical assistance of a Technical and Pedagogical Coordinator (TPC). Additionally, every week there will be a tutor/teacher guiding the participants through the contents of the course's module and units, offering guidance regarding the implementation of the activities, and providing assessment tools that enable the participants to discover their progress in the course. Therefore, each participant must pay attention to messages they are sent by the tutor/teacher in order to make the learning process a smooth, informative and positive experience.
The course includes discussion activities (forum, individual and group activities) that allow participants to improve their mastery of a particular objective and the tutor to assess the performance of each of the participants.
In order to determine whether participants manage to successfully complete the course, the course director will consider both their performance in the activities and the quality of participation throughout the course.
When the participant chooses to access the Virtual Classroom is up to them and will depend on when is convenient for each participant and how they choose to organise themselves.
Sunday at midnight, local time in each country, is the deadline for submitting the exercises for each module; therefore, the exercises that are not submitted within this period will not be corrected until the retake week.
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A calendar will be uploaded each week that will provide guidance with regard to the activities that must be completed in each of the modules. The activities for a specific week of the course must be completed during that week and not be delayed into the following week.
Responsibilities of those involved in the learning process
Learning will be based on exchanges that include the management and the teacher/tutor of the course. Their commitments are detailed below:
The role of the course director
The course director will assume the following commitments: •
To supervise the courses' teaching material;
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To monitor the teacher's/tutor's work;
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To participate in the course from time to time;
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To review the participants' assessments and to make the decision with regard to the corresponding academic certificates;
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To intervene in the possible appeals regarding disagreements between teacher/ tutor and participants relating to marks.
The role of the teacher/tutor
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The teacher/tutor will focus on providing guidance, monitoring and encouraging the participants, using the communication resources provided by the virtual classroom: messages, forums and notices. Their commitments during the course are summarised in the following points:
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To reply to messages within 24 hours.
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To review the work submitted as soon as possible and, in any case, provide feedback for the final projects that are submitted by the participants no more than two days after the completion of their module.
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To provide the participants with guidance relating to the course dynamics and to facilitate exchanges between the participants.
The role of the technical pedagogical coordinator (TPC)
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During the course the participant will have the advice and support of "the Course Technical and Pedagogical Coordinator" (TPC), relating to any questions that may arise regarding the platform's tools and browsing the course. To contact the coordinator participants can send an email from the course's platform.
The participant's actions
Participants must be responsible for their own learning process and will have the following obligations: •
To complete all the planned course activities in a timely fashion. Furthermore, they must reply to the queries and tasks set by the teaching team.
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They must pay attention to the general instructions and specific directions set in each module, study the theory for the chapter, and then perform the activities relating to the chapter.
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To check the notice board on a regular basis and participate actively in the course's debating forums.
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They must organize their time so that they can effectively meet the demands of the course, for which they will need to dedicate around 12 to 15 hours per week
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They will be aware of the difficulties that arise during the course and communicate with tutors and technical assistants in order to seek solutions to problems.
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They will clearly indicate their doubts and requirements, as well as openly sharing their professional experience with the group.
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They must complete all the mandatory activities proposed by the teaching team (both individual and group activities) in order to receive the certificate.
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To inform the teacher/tutor of the exceptional circumstances that may prevent them from taking part in the course in a normal fashion and undertake to catch up in the retake week(s).
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To complete the module surveys as well as the final survey at the end of the course (the certificate will not be awarded if the final survey is not completed, even if the mark obtained is 65 or higher).
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The participant may be expelled from the course if they do not behave appropriately in the virtual classroom after being warned by the teacher/tutor and/or TPC regarding the inappropriate nature of their behaviour.
Teaching resources and materials
The course will feature the teaching resources and materials that facilitate the participants' learning process:
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• Learning guide and work plan (the latter will be uploaded on a weekly basis). • Content developed specifically for the course: class sessions, documents, reading guides and analysis diagrams. • Cases and teaching activities. • Reference material: reading material taken from texts and books that will be provided to the participants electronically.
Assessment of the participants
The participants will be continually assessed by having their work, activities and participation in the forum's debates reviewed. All course activities are mandatory (unless otherwise indicated) since each contributes to learning, but not all are assessed and have a bearing on the overall course mark.
Additionally, participants must take a knowledge questionnaire at the beginning and end of the course. This is a requirement to start the course and be award the certificate upon completing it. The questionnaire aims to discover the participants' prior knowledge and what they have learned during the course. The results have no bearing on the overall mark achieved by the participant throughout the course and will only be used to improve the quality of the INDES courses, in line with the learning requirements of its target audience.
General criteria for assessing activities:
Upon completion of each module, the tutor will assess each of the completed activities, obtaining a mark that is in line with the work performed. Besides, a global module grade will be assigned. This module grade will only be considered as satisfactory (minimum of 65 points out of 100) if
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all module activities have been individually graded as satisfactory. The module global grade will not be an automatic arithmetic mean, as the tutor will take into account in a qualitative fashion:
The quality of the exercises submitted in the task section
The quality of the contributions made in the debating forum, as well as their continuous participation in the forum throughout the week.
The completion of the self-assessment exercises
Collaborating in group activities (particularly participation in the forum)
Regularly following the course
Submitting the activities in the established timeframes.
All activities will be graded on the basis of a 1-100 score, and it is necessary to obtain in each of them a minimum grading of 65 to pass the course.
The participants will be able to check in the platform the result obtained in each activity after the end of the corresponding module. If they have to catch-up with some activity, it will be indicated which one/s and the date for catching – up. The activities will be retaken during the catching-up weeks. By the end of those periods, the corresponding tutor will assign the grades.
It is a must to perform all activities (with a minimum grade of 65 in each of them) to obtain the course certificate. An average of 65 or superior will not be enough if there are any activities left.
Nonetheless, the course director, taking into account all tutors’ evaluations, will be responsible for the final course grading. Such grading will be communicated once all Closing activities (post-
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test and final course evaluation) have been done. Such final grading will take into account different factors, such as the student progress throughout the course and the relative difficulty of the different activities.
As long as the participant has obtained a final score of 65 or higher, and has completed the pre and post test evaluation and the final survey, a certificate will be delivered.
The certificates are only delivered in a digital format through the platform, so that the participant himself can print it out if he wishes. In such case, the printed certificate will be considered the original document that has been delivered in electronic format. On the other hand, whoever needs a confirmation of the certificate’s validity shall contact INDES BID-INDES@iadb.org and the institution will verify the person’s participation in the course.
The participant will receive a certificate according to the following criteria: Regular certificate: final score of 65-89 points. Certificate with honours: final score of 90 points or higher.
The name appearing in the certificate will be the one indicated by the participant himself when he got registered in the Portal. Students are therefore responsible of the accuracy of their data.
Important note: for the calculation of hours of the certificate, 15 hours per module will be considered. For the purpose of this computation, the hours of the Preliminary activities or Closing Activities will not be contemplated.
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