Chester Clinic

Advanced training on outcome based education (obe) and student-centered learning (scl)

Training Report
ADVANCED TRAINING ON OUTCOME BASED EDUCATION (OBE) AND STUDENT-CENTERED LEARNING (SCL) April 24- May 3rd Masoom Hamdard, Ahmad Khalid Rasuli Table of Contents

Outcome-Based Education and Student-Centered Learning
Advanced Training (April 24th - 03rd May 2016) Background: Higher Education is a major driver of economic development and the imperatives for countries to upscale employment skills demands for quality teaching and learning within higher educational institutes. Universities want to be recognized as providers of good quality education, ensure their reputation and wants to demonstrate their performance by responding to student's demands by assuring them that their education will lead to good jobs and will give them the skills needed for a successful person in the society. In post-conflict countries such as Afghanistan, where many teachers still fol ow decades-old syllabus and traditional teacher-centered pedagogy approaches, struggles to adapt to the modern teaching and learning approaches. The Government of Afghanistan (GoA) by recognizing the strategic importance of human capital in the modern global knowledge economy, and its direct impact on the economic development, has placed higher education as one of its priority. The Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) is aware of the fact that higher education is becoming more internationalized and its role in contributing to new areas (such as evidence-based policy making, innovation, local and regional development) and to produce appropriately skil ed workforce that can respond to the chal enges of the 21st century is growing. The quality of teaching matters the most in higher education, the MOHE has therefore taken a series of initiatives including short-term and long-term training for teacher of public universities on Outcome-Based Education, Student-Centered Learning, and the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for improved pedagogy and student-teacher interaction. In order to foster a climate conducive to the recognition of teaching quality as a priority in public universities, and to employ innovative evaluation instrument so that the impact on the quality of learning outcomes could be measured, MOHE has layout a strategy that will pave ways for the implementation of modern teaching and learning approaches in public universities. Approach: The MOHE's approach is to work on multiple fronts for the implementation of OBE-SCL in public universities of Afghanistan. This includes but is not limited to; Awareness and capacity building through series of workshops and seminars on the importance of OBE-SCL in modern higher education Selection of OBE-SCL champions that will help in the implementation of OBE-SCL in their universities and faculties Universities and faculties to design policies that will ensure conducive environment for teachers to complete OBE-SCL training/certification and implement it in their courses and programs MOHE to set-up a mutually recognized certification with University Technology Malaysia (UTM) MOHE will design a By-Law making it mandatory for all new-coming and mid-career teacher to obtain OBE-SCL certification OBE-SCL certification set a criterion for teacher's performance and promotion OBE-SCL is integrated in the infrastructure plan and packages for Masters scholarships OBE-SCL Training: Subsequent to the introductory training on OBE-SCL in November, 2015 with the cooperation from UTM, the MOHE, considering the needs and interest, has organized an advanced OBE-SCL training for a relatively larger target group. Four senior international OBE-SCL experts from UTM are invited to conduct an 8 days training from 24 April to 03 May, 2016. Selection of Participants: The participants of the training are carefully selected, considering their attendance and performance in the previous OBE-SCL training, their age, knowledge of English, their position in their faculty, and with the intention to have at least one teacher from each discipline/department. The rationale behind inviting teachers from each faculty is to use them later as champions/master trainer for their own faculty. An official letter requesting all chancellors of public universities is sent, additionally they were contact via telephone (a favored way of communication in Afghanistan) and emails to speed up the process of selecting qualified teachers from each university. An online registration form is developed where al nominated teachers were asked to register themselves, the idea behind online registration form is to create a database where we could keep track of the teachers who actively participated in the training, and who could later report on the implementation of OBE-SCL in their courses. The actual number of participate who attended the training is 175; the table below provides an overview of participants from different universities (further details on individual participants are provided in Annex I). No# University
Number of
Representation from Faculties
Kabul University Engineering, Social Science, Computer Science, Sharia law, Environmental, pharmacy and Geo Kabul Medical University Allied Health Science, Dentistry, Curative medicine and Nursing. Kabul Educational University Sociology, Language & Literature and professional and Education Kabul Polytechnic University Electro mechanic, Geology and Mining, Geometric and cadaster, Water Resources and Chemical Khost University Journalism, Law, Education, Computer Science, Medicine, Economics, Sharia (Islamic Law) and Engineering and Agriculture. Takhar University Education, Economics, Engineering, Agriculture, Sharia Law and Law and Kunduz University Law, Stomatology, Education, Computer Science and Economics. Balkh University Heart University Economics, Social Science, Communication, Medicine, Education and Literature. Jawzjan University Chemical Engineering, Social Science Agriculture, Literature, Natural Science and Islamic Culture. Kandahar University
Engineering, Economics, Education,
Law, Social Science, Literature,
Journalism and Computer Science.
Badakhshan University Social Science and Literature Panjsher University Geology and mine, Sharia and Nangarhar University Engineering, Economics, Agriculture, social Science, Law, Education, sharia and Journalism. Parwan University Education, Literature, Economics and Computer Science. Samangan University Wardak University Badghis University Education, Agriculture and Daikondi University Sare pol University Faryab University Kunar University Education, Agriculture, Economics, sharia and Computer Science. Sare-pol University Ghazni Technical University Geology and Mine Ghazni University Helmand University Uruzgan University Education and Training Faculty. Paktia University Education, Law and Agriculture Bamyan University Education, Social Science and Natural Science. Paktika University Baghlan University Education, Economics, Language Laghman University Agriculture and Social Science. Albironi University Education, Agriculture, sharia, Medical, Engineering and Logar University Farah University Training Objectives: The main objective of this training is to; Enlighten participants on curriculum design, planning and documentation Guide participants to develop program objectives, program outcomes and course outcomes; as well as getting them linked to the assessment requirements Highlight best practices in modern higher education Enlighten participants on the importance of the various assessment types and tools that can be employed, both at the course and program levels Guide participants on developing the key performance criteria and descriptors Impart an overall view of conducting student centered learning in classes Implement active teaching and learning techniques to engage students in learning Guide participants to form learning teams among students, and be able to support and develop team work skil s among students Expected Outcomes: By the end of these training, participants will be able to; Understand the importance of OBE and prepare an overall OBE plan for a program. Develop and write effective program objectives and program outcomes Explain the importance and be able to select appropriate assessment tools Prepare performance criteria for course and program level outcomes Explain the needs to shift to students-centered learning methods and be able to create an effective learning environment in the classroom Design and plan an aligned learning environment to support students learning using informal cooperative learning activities Form and support development of learning teams in classrooms Explain formal cooperative learning structure and its principles Design and plan learning environments that support the development of learning teams Modality of the Training: Considering the large number of participants, two groups were formed. One group fol owed modules on Student-Centered Learning (SCL) while at the same time the other group fol owed modules on Outcome-Based Education (OBE). Prof. Shahrin and Prof. Siti Hawa led the OBE module and Dr. Helmi and Dr. Khairiyah led the SCL modules. Masoom Hamdard replaced Prof. Shahrin in the second week of the training since he has to go back to Malaysia. All participants were asked to bring their teaching materials along so that it can be used and modified during the training sessions. A number of individual and group assignments were conducted to encourage engagement from each participant. Four workbooks, two for OBE and two for SCL were provided to each participant. The workbooks were mainly used for exercises during the training and contained lecture support materials. Assessment Approach: In addition to attending the training on OBE-SCL, the participants are also expected to implement OBE-SCL approaches in their courses and later on in their programs and universities. In order to know if the participants have grasped the subjects taught to them and whether they are capable to implement it in their courses, an assignment is given to all participants to develop a portfolio (see annex II for guidance on writing a portfolio), where each participant has to reflect on the modern teaching and learning approaches, and provide evidence on the implementation of OBE-SCL in their courses. A deadline of 15th July, 2016 is given to submit their portfolios. The portfolios can be writing in both English and local languages, once submitted it will be filtered by HEDP Teaching and Learning expert and then it will be forwarded to experts from UTM. Upon successful assessment of the portfolio participants will be awarded Level (I) OBE-SCL certification. The portfolio will also be used as a criterion for the selection of OBE-SCL champions. The OBE-SCL champions wil be provided further opportunities to master the concepts of OBE-SCL and would become national level OBE-SCL experts, the wil have the know-how of training other teachers on the subject matter. OBE-SCL champions to obtain Level (I ) certification to be recognized as trainer of trainers. Participant's Reflection on the Training: What have you learned from this workshop? Overall the training was evaluated satisfactory by the participants, since the concept of Outcome Based Education (OBE) and Student Centered Learning (SCL) is new to all universities and faculty members. They were devoted to the workshop and expressed their experience on a wide range of thoughts: Some of the feedback received from the participants are documented below. "Much, how to align your course with OBE and the criteria of assessment, Bloom's taxonomy, cognitive domain, selecting of assessment task and reflection and much more… thanks to HEDP". "SCL, OBE, ICL and many other approaches. I learned how to apply student centered learning in classes even in large classes." "OBE, SCL, rubrics, principles of OBE, program outcome, course learning outcome, assessment, CQI, OBE curriculum, Assessment Cycle, TLA, CLO… ". "I learned how to make changes and improve our university be increasing the student's knowledge according to OBE workshop". "Process and components of OBE including: developing EDO, CO and AO. I also learned about assessment as a crucial part of OBE. And how assessment help us improve the quality of a program". "How to design a program outcome as a head of department in my university, as a teachers too. How to apply all above outcomes in my class. How to make a portfolio and rubric". "I have learned many several essential points about the development of capacity. How to get a good result from every aspect of lessons, even if it will be applicable to my personal life as well. OBE was the key word. Techniques of implementing these essential strategies in the university, class and department level." What to improve in the workshop? We got numerous comments on ways to improve the workshop. Followings are some. "Overall, the whole components of the workshop were good but had problems in some areas like; not a proper place for group working, voice problems too high or too low, tea breaks not on time". "Workshop duration must be extended to go through by details. On the other hand our course syl abus must be checked by trainers". "More videos, submitting the PPT before the start. Giving chances to teachers to go out of Afghanistan and participating in developed countries". "All the contents should be included in the book. Some of the slides were not included in the book, students needed to take photos instead, which created problems in the lecture sessions". "The second part of the workshop was more of a lecture. I request more activities by participants and their involvement in the class". "You should give more time to each session in order to understand the concept of OBE-SCL deeply. I mean the whole time for the workshop was not enough". "More time management, more group works and paring works and more discussion on each activity and giving more practical examples". "The workshop must have specific lectures for specific faculties and related departments". Lessons Learned: • Large Number of participants in the workshops that created many challenges in terms of logistics and other areas. In future workshops small number of participants is suggested. • Many teachers/participants would only come and sign the attendance sheet and then leave the hall for other private business. This should not be permitted in future and proper mechanisms need to be considered where participants can fully participant in the training • Incase of large number of participants bigger halls for groupwork and activities are suggested. Availability of big space with movable tables and chairs that can easily fit participants and is conducive for group work. • Prior workshop-related printed materials like books, brochures and journals should be made available in enough number so that each participant can get it on time. • Arrangement of translation facility for participants where needed, In case of having teacher unable to understand proper English. • Time Management before and after the workshop, MoHE officials like Deputy Minister and Minister could be requested to appear on time for their speeches in order to prevent time loss. Time during the breaks could be affectively managed as well, by requesting participants to enter the training hall right after the break ends. • Coordination between teachers coming from provinces and related authorities of Ministry of Higher Education. Accommodation, travel expenditures, payrol s and exchanging Maktoobs are issues that should be pre-organized by the finance and Admin in order to avoid any further inconvenience. • Based on teacher's comments bringing some necessary changes in the lecture series with the collaboration of foreign trainees. More, sufficient and related pictures, videos and charts must be brought in to lectures. • Training materials should be provided to all participants both in hard copies as well as in electronic format. Annexes: Annex I: List of Participants: Full Name
Position
1 Asadullah Hamid Veterinary Science Head of department and lecturer Head of Department Environmental science 5 Mohammad Tahir 6 Mohammad Tariq Computer Science educational sciences 9 Spozhmay Oriya educational sciences 10 Wafaurahman Wafa Environmental Sciences Head Of Department 11 Ziauddin Haneef 12 Samiullah Sofizada 1 Syed Sher Shah Full Name
Position
1 Brishna Dawlaty Allied Health Science 2 Hayatullah Jawad Acting Academic Affairs Chancellor Curative medicine Head of research department 5 Mohammad Haris Full Name
Position
1 Allah Mohammad Professional and educational Science Language and literature Lecturer 4 Sayed Javid Hamidi Full Name
Position
Electro mechanic 2 M. Zuher Sultani Geometric and Cadaster Lecturer Geology and Mining 4 Ah.Wahid Sekandari Water Resources Eng. 5 Abdul Wasin Noori Chemical Technology 6 Hamidullah Turabi Water Resources Eng. Full Name
Position
Law and political 2 Ahmad Javid Shakib Journalism and Public Head of Department Head of Department Computer Science 5 Hadi ur Rahman Lecturer and Deputy Dean 6 Hamidullah Hamid Head of the department 7 Hazrat M. Bahar 8 Hisamudin Rahimzai Sharia (Islamic law) 9 Mohammad Anwer Computer Science 10 Mumtaz Ibrahimi Head of Para clinic Department 11 Rahmanullah Rasa Head of Department and lecturer 12 Raidy Gul Hamdard 13 RAIS KHAN OLFAT 14 ROSHAN HAIRAN 15 Sahib Shah Sayad Head of Department 1 Sayed wali shah Chairperson of BBA. Department 18 zarwali sediqi Head of Department and Lecturer Full Name
Position
1 Ahmad Fawad Ehsas Engineering Deputy Dean of faculty- Lecturer Law and political Head of Department Public Administration 4 Khadem hussain 5 Khwaja Muhammad Head of department 6 Qudratullah Nazari Vice head of faculty Head of department Computer Science Head of Department 9 Sayed Anwer Shah 1 Sultan Mohammad Head of Department 11 wahidullah Azami Lecturer of Islamic studies Department 12 Dr.Zarghoun Tareen Medicine 13 Najibullah Rafiqee 14 Naqibullah Kargar Head of department Full Name
Position
2 Abdul Wahab Shams Social Sciences Head of Department 3 Aziz-ur-Rahman Dean of Faculty of Medicine Journalism and Mass 5 Ghulam Rabbani Faculty of literature 6 Nasim Tahsildar 7 Nazir Ahmad Tookhy Veterinary Head of Department 8 Toufiq Sarwarzada Assistant Professor of English and Head of Department of Foreign Languages Full Name
Position
1 Abdul Jamil Nazary 2 Hedayatullah Akbari Sharia 3 Abdulhay Zafary 4 Ainuddin amani Agricultural faculty Lecturer and CEQA lead of Takhar University 6 Mohammad Qasem Lecturer, Head of department, Vice chancellor for students affairs Sulaiman Rostayee Head of Department Faculty of Agriculture 9 Sayed Javid Azimi Civil Engineering Head of Department 11 Jamaluddin Hamidi 13 Ab.Qawi noori Full Name
Position
1 Abdur Rahim abidi Head of Department 3 Babrak Karwand Veterinary Science Law and Political 7 Maazullah Nasim Faculty of Education Head of Department 9 Mohammad Sharif 1 Muhammad Akbar Computer science Head of Department 1 Sayed Zabihullah Computer Science 1 Mohammad Nasim Law and Political Full Name
Position
Public Administration 2 fazlullah sabir Public Administration 3 Hijratullah Ekhtyar Law and Political 4 Ibad-ur-Rahman Head of Department 5 Israrulhai muneeb Head of Islamic studies department, lecturer. 6 M Faiq (latoon) 7 Masaood Moahid 8 Sayed Attaulhaq Veterinary Science Lecturer and secretary of Department N Full Name
Position
1 Masoda Khairzada Chemical engineering Social Science Faculty 3 Ziauddin quvanch N Full Name
Position
1 Amanullah Totakhail Computer Science 2 Mirwais Stanikzai 4 Shahidul ah (Amn) 5 Wahidul ah Ayoubi N Full Name
Position
Geology and Mine Deputy of Academic Affairs 2 Mohammad Naeem Geology and mine N Full Name
Position
1 Asadullah Tareen N Full Name
Position
1 Mohammad Qasam Head of Department, Lecturer, etc. N Full Name
Position
1 Faridullah khan Education and Training Head of Department N Full Name
Position
Head of Department and Lecturer N Full Name
Position
N Full Name
Position
S.
N Full Name
Position
1 S. Anwar sirat N Full Name
Position
Full Name
Position
2 Juma Khan Pazhman Natural Science 3 Ziaulhaq Khalili 4 Abdul ah Sadiq 5 Alikhan Shahryar N Full Name
Position
2 Mohammad Sadiq N Full Name
Position
Head of department 2 Mohammad kabir Low and Political 4 Sayed Naqibul ah Full Name
Position
Computer Science Lecturer/ Head of Dept. 4 Zabihullah Alimyar Faculty of Languages and Dean, and Lecturer Full Name
Position
1 Attaurahman Hammad Head of department, lecturer 2 Nasratullah behrang Lecturer / Head of department 3 Noor Rahman afzali Geology and mine Head of Department Full Name
Position
1 Aqai Kalan Hassanyar 2 Zemaray Mohammadi 3 Abdul Malik Hamwar 4 Faridoon farzam Full Name
Position
1 Azizul ah yosufi Vice chancel or for students 2 Chaman Ali Hikmat 3 Mohammad Rasool Dean of social sciences faculty 4 Muhammad Reza Rahyab Education Full Name
Position
1 Mohammad Rahim Omari Engineering Full Name
Position
1 Mohammad Shafiq Full Name
Position
Full Name
Position
2 Mirza Mohammad Full Name
Position
1 M.Arash khalili Full Name
Position
Language & Literature Lecturer Full Name
Position
1 Abdul wakil barakzai Agriculture 2 Sharifullah Amin Annex II: Instructions for Writing Teaching and Learning Portfolio: The core idea behind writing this portfolio is to show evidence that you are applying the OBE-SCL knowledge gained during these workshops in your courses/programs/universities The portfolio should contain: - An introduction with a description of your teaching experience - A description of your educational activities - Your vision on teaching and learning - A reflection on what you have learnt during the OBE-SCL training workshops and how the concepts learnt are applied in your practice and shared with colleagues (please refer to your own teaching practice and use examples from your courses) - The design and planning for a minimum of 7 weeks of a course you are teaching using the approaches that was covered in the training workshops, using the concepts in OBE and SCL - For the course that you chose, make an analysis of how well the course is aligned, especially in applying what you learned in the training workshops. You need to include wel -formulated course learning outcomes, with clear description of the teaching and learning activities used to support the students achieve the outcomes, and to make clear how the outcomes and teaching and learning activities are constructively aligned with the assessment tasks. You should also clearly include the program outcomes that your course outcomes are mapped to. Important elements that must be present are: • Learning outcomes and the program outcomes that they are connected to • Lesson plan / overview of how the course is built up, including an overview of resources used • Teaching/learning methods for activating the desired outcomes • Assessment material (formative and summative) • Student feedback and your reflection on the feedback • Reflection on your teaching skills, your strengths and weaknesses, and your view on further professionalization. • What is there still to learn for you? What are your future goals for professional development? And how could you achieve those goals and how could you check if you have attained these goals? Try to be creative, for example if you don't have program outcome, don't stop. Start with your course outcome. Google Scholar/Science Direct/Scopus and other scientific website are at your service that you may consider for writing your portfolio. Submission date: mid July 2016 (you can submit earlier but not later than the deadline). To: Ms. Krishma Rabi at.

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