Flash report! Flash Report Flash report! MOES WEBINAR SERIES HITS MASSIVE GROWTH

BUILDING TEACHER CAPACITIES AMIDST GENERAL QUARANTINE SITUATION IN LAOS

(June 9,2021 Vientiane) It’s 2:00 PM and the “waiting room” of the webinar has already swelled with 152 participants from all over Laos, waiting for the program to start LIVE on ZOOM. In the main ZOOM room, the resource speaker is reviewing the freshly edited presentation materials prepared in collaboration with curriculum development, subject matter, ICT4E, instructional design and teacher training experts. In off-site locations, the chat support team has already logged into the system, ready to assist instant queries. The materials have been uploaded online on Slideshare.net for public sharing with both English and Lao versions. These are also now posted as file-share within ZOOM in the chat box.

At 2:07, the webinar starts. The specialist team discover that some of the accounts are actually being viewed by 4-6 more individual users. These are from the Teacher Training Colleges. Just like the first 2 modules, actual viewers exceeded the logged in email accounts. The presentation starts and immediately the questions and comments pour in over the chat box.

For the current 250 registered accounts, 48.9% claim to have experienced using ZOOM more than 4 times already. Majority of participants, or 78% admit this is their first ever webinar and 30.7% say this is also their first ZOOM experience. The host and moderators had to give constant reminders for participants to mute mics and turn on cameras…with smiles. They are just too happy that participants have overcome their hesitation to try these new technologies and are quickly learning both content while at the same time increasing their own digital literacy levels. Only the 3rd in a series of 15 webinars (web-based seminar) meant for pre-trainer’s training for core members of the Department of Teacher Education (DTE), the Research Institute for Educational Sciences (RIES), and the Department of General Education and the Institute for Education Administrators, what began as an internal event has scaled rapidly into an in-demand capacity building innovation for many sub-sectors. It is being calibrated continuously as each module completed nets new learnings about the Lao digital learning context.

Starting on June 2, 2021 (Wednesday) with invitations through the DGE, DTE, RIES and IFEAD, the first webinar sustained 2 hours with 125 participants inside ZOOM staying until the end. It was simulcast LIVE outside ZOOM on facebook.com/eesdp with another 95 viewers despite having the sound disabled. The next session was on Friday, June 4. 2021 on the same time slot: 2:00-4:00 pm. This time an average 144 (147-150 at peak) was able to stay connected until the end. The live feed on Facebook had to be interrupted to focus bandwidth on the increased ZOOM attendees. This 3rd module, 157 unique accounts have been able to log in with at least 4 accounts showing 4-7 actual individuals watching through one device.

2nd module screen capture at the end pf the module: June 4, 2021 2:00-4:00 pm. Due to internet connections ranged from 144 to 150 but 144 stayed on until conclusion.

Screen cap after the session has already formally ended, it lingered for more than 10 minutes before admin closed the zoom access.

The EESDP Project Director is happy as she and the expert team on board as project implementation consultants monitored the live conversations and witnessed how the various communications channels were gathering feedback. The international experts followed the Lao exchanges, even using google translate to better grasp the emerging flow of knowledge transfers.

Initiated by the Education for Employment Sector Development Project (EESDP)’s team in response to disruptions to face to face activities due to pandemic security measures, the free learning events made use of available technologies to jumpstart the transformations to Education 4.0 and is attracting support and participation from the stakeholders.

According to EESDP Team Leader Dr. Bernadette V. Gonzales, “Meetings on ZOOM or MS TEAMS have been quite common but usually limited to small numbers of participants and not really for intensive training. We are combining ZOOM, Streamyard, SlideShare, Facebook Groups/Pages and Messenger to have seamless synchronous and asynchronous learning and to reach as many teachers as possible and tool them for more learner-centered approaches.”

Dr. Gonzales further shared that the Project intends to train 12,000 teachers of priority subjects (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Math, Lao Language, English) in order to better deliver the improved secondary education curriculum. “The RIES is preparing improved Teacher Guides for these priority subjects while the DTE is preparing the Teacher Training Manual for in-service training. Joining the force is the IFEAD which will be training the Principals of secondary schools especially on school instructional leadership. Of course, the DGE will be working closely with the PESS and DESB to improve learning outcomes so we have all these units, now converging to push for quality education in Laos. As these are not normal times due to the pandemic, we need to move forward with innovative thinking because everyone wants to deliver better opportunities for Lao Learners so they have a better chance to compete nationally and regionally.”

Capacity building targets under the EESDP Convergence Strategy

Joel Wayne Ganibe, EESDP expert for ICT4E/Teacher Development Strategy/Classroom based Assessment and his team of national experts are working closely with the implementing units and has begun to pilot microcertifications where a typical full course is broken down into smaller, bite-size modules that can be delivered asynchronously and synchronously. The 15 modules in this pilot series are all geared towards increasing Lao Teacher PCK (pedagogical-content/context-knowledge) while also increasing confidence and experience on education technology. “We make it easier for the learner to absorb knowledge faster and to build skills through continuous engagement and formative assessments.” Ganibe explains that the webinar is just level 1 or the first barrier to overcome by the target beneficiaries. “It is meant to be the first of many layers and communication channels that will be used for knowledge transfer and generation. It aims to provide experiential learning through digital channels to give them more comfort in using these channels, so that we can mentor them further through a community of practice. Yes, it is social media and we are demonstrating how it can be used for education and not just entertainment, now that face-to-face events and travel are limited,” he further elaborated. “In SESDP, we created a Teacher’s Group on Facebook1 . We started it by “friending” and then “adding” Lao teachers one by one, at a time when even checking emails was not a habit and social media was just catching on as a professional tool. It now has more than 8,000 members and growing. We share files, use use polls, and share content and build consensus within this online community. From here, the Lao stakeholders began building their own groups and using other platforms like WhatsApp. In EESDP, we aim to deploy more digital tools for learning. Let’s face it. The 4th Industrial Revolution has already happened and technology is now the driver for economic change. So more and more we need to demonstrate how to use these for education.” Based on registration data, 39% [18.8% (1-5 years) + 20.4% (6-10 yrs)] of the participants have been working with the Ministry of Education and Sports between 1 to 10 years. These are the relatively young educators/administrators and the main target frontliners.

1 https://www.facebook.com/groups/TE.LAO

19.6% have been with MOES for 11-15 years (middle managers) but a surprising 34.4% combines those who have worked with the ministry from 16-20 years + more than 20 years. This means we are attracting the senior education managers as well as those who have become national experts like professors from the National University of Laos. This indicates a very positive response from various levels within the Ministry doing lifelong learning.

True to the meaning of “convergence”, participants come from various departments or sub-sectors concerned with quality of education. 29.8% come from the Teacher Training Colleges (instructors) together with DTE’s 5.2%. TVET colleges provide 3.2% while 16.8% come from Secondary Schools (teachers).

20.8% come from “others” which may include some PESS and DESB as well as private helping organizations involved in education. Meanwhile, as of writing, the EESDP Team has updated with the latest (4th in a series of 15) module: Simulation Teaching, where due to rain, internet connections have reduced the number of active accounts able to link to 146. But again at least 5 of these accounts were Teacher Training Colleges streaming the zoom webinar in a classroom of several individual teacher participants.

Participant from Bankeun TTC at 4:08 expressing his appreciation to the organizers.

The registration data also reveals the most common technology platforms being used by the participants to show the extent of adaption and to point out where to introduce more tools.

CRITICAL NEXT STEPS: The EESDP Team are now considering asking for a specific policy support from the Ministry such as guidance on the innovation for digital certificates. Considering that the modules correspond to both pre-service and inservice courses and delivered no less by experts straight to individuals and a mechanism for online assessments, MOES may need to consider these with academic credits equivalence as is now the practice on Continuous Professional Development (CPD) programs in more advanced systems in ASEAN. “These are no longer the traditional experts train-master trainers-who train local trainers-then train lucky teachers kind where we expect natural generational loss of ‘trickle down effect’ [essential concepts may be lost by incompletely trained and equipped trainers].” Explains Ms. Keomannivanh Phimmahasay, EESDP Project Director.

“These webinars are straight from the experts to the individual learners already and more than the usual workshops, the online assessment adapts a formative approach by ensuring each participant had access to the references online, was able to directly ask questions to resource speakers during the webinar, plus has been able to interact directly with expert team via the Facebook Page and with fellow participants in various communities of practice. It then rewards this reflective learning and initiative with valid, digital certificates. “Even financial institutions like banks are doing online transactions via mobile phones only and that involves money, this one involves test-results that can be sent back immediately upon completion. We would like to take advantage of these advances and popular response—it is showing that our Ministry of Education and Sports is also leading these innovations.” She shared

Dr. Bernadette Gonzales also observed: “This is the right time for real convergence. This is why we opened the webinar beyond the EESDP Project only. We need as many participants/collaborators as possible to effect system-wide improvements. We all to the Lao Learner, equipping them with a supportive environment for them to successfully become lifelong learners themselves.”

The Webinar registration remains open: https://forms.gle/46PvqLZXMEVaq7qN6