Vice-Chancellor's Report to University Council 2019/2020

The Academic Programming and Delivery (APAD) Division participated in cross campus training online workshops to assist with moving classes online. This training, led by the Learning Support Supervisor, was conducted in March 2020 and covered 962 participants across all five UWI campuses. Twenty-five Open Campus full-time staff were among the trainees (inclusive of Site Technicians) as the Division built capacity for roll-out of further training and ensuring the technical support required would be available. To ensure that the Continuing and Professional Education face-to-face classes could continue following the lockdowns across countries in the region, the training team also worked with the CPE facilitators across Open Campus Country Sites (OCCS) to ready the Sites for the transition to teaching and learning in the virtual environment. The online training sessions were conducted in March 2020. Notably, one week post the start of training, ably supported by the Site Technicians who were themselves trained the week prior, the virtual classes began at some Sites.

Collaboration with the Office of the Parliament of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago for the implementation of a Parliamentary Academy as part of the Parliament’s Comprehensive Strategic Development Plan for institutional capacity building to plan, develop and deliver a combination of seven courses and senior-level workshops to build the capacity and professional skills of 30 of its Members of Parliament (MPs). The Office of the Parliament of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is committed to funding this project to a total of TT$1,447,452.00. An agreement with the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) for the delivery of Post Graduate Diplomas in Junior Command and Staff Leadership was negotiated. The Open Campus anticipates a sum of US$72,987.50 for the first delivery of the Post Graduate Diploma.

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Three online webinars were delivered:

• Using A Web Conferencing Tool To Facilitate Online Delivery Of Content

Basics For Use Of The Moodle Learning Management System

How To Engage Students In The Online Environment.

• Design, development, and delivery of an eight-week certified online train-the-trainer programme entitled Designing and Delivering Engaging Online Learning Experiences for the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Information, Jamaica, equipped participants with the knowledge and skills needed to deliver training to teachers in online pedagogy and design. Two courses: • “Developing Learning Materials for the Inclusive Online Classroom” • “Tools and Techniques for Teaching Online”

• The UWI and Countrystyle Community Tourism Network (CCTN) entered into a second MOU with shared professional development goals and training to advance community-based tourism in the region. This partnership seeks to advance community-based tourism as a strategy for sustainable development and an academic discipline, and to deliver an online Study Tour Workshop, which will provide participants with real-life experiences in executing community-based tourism activities. o A successful three-part webinar entitled “Navigating the Pandemic, Re-inventing the Business of Tourism”was executed.

120 senior education officers, school administrators, teacher-educators, technology coordinators and other experts participated in the training.

• Development and delivery of the UNESCO “Distance Education Teachers’ Training Initiative” valued at US$10,000.00, prepared teachers in Jamaica and select countries in the OECS to facilitate learning online as a rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Prepared a cohort of 80 teachers and master teachers with the competencies, up-to-date tools, and resources to apply innovative teaching practices or pedagogies, to strengthen teacher capacity to respond to the current crises, as well as build resilience for future shocks in education.

• During the academic year, in preparation for a possible move toward online proctoring of final examinations, given the challenges associated with the spread of COVID-19, the Director APAD co-led a cross departmental team with the Senior Assistant Registrar, Assessment, Awards and Records (AAR) that piloted online proctoring systems Respondus and PSI Bridge RPNow . The reports on the administration of the examinations using Respondus and RPNow were presented at the meeting of the

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The webinars achieved overall viewership above 2000 views on Facebook and cumulatively over 200 participants.

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