CAF promotes the digital transformation of teaching in Latin America with a new virtual course

The COVID-19 crisis has changed the way students in schools and universities are educated around the world. The Latin American region did not escape this abrupt change and of course the vast majority of teaching staff were not ready to make the transition from the classroom to the virtual world. In order to support this reality, CAF -Development Bank of Latin America- teaches the free virtual course“Digital transformation of teaching: urgent tools and resources for onlinetraining.”

The course is intended for teachers and professors and will allow them to easily acquire new tools to manage the online training. During the course, various modules are covered which support players in the management and evaluation of online educational activities, in order to facilitate virtual teaching.

The modules work in a number of ways in terms of the structure of the materials taught. Various e-learning platforms are included, as well as design tools, video editing, evaluation and communication, among others. The training program consists of 8 modules and is based on the “self-paced learning” methodology, but there are also discussion forums, lectures, practical work, tutoring and Q&A sessions.

The top 500 students of the course, which lasts 120 hours and ends in October, will receive a certificate of achievement issued by CAF -Development Bank of Latin America- and the Polytechnic University of Valencia.

With the goal of providing more visibility to teaching, its competencies, necessary and urgent tools to use, as well as the importance of this new teaching/learning scheme in schools and universities in Latin America, the Webinar “How to become an online teacher and not fail in the attempt” was also held.

CAF's education agenda coordinator, Dinorah Singer, commented. “We don't know enough about teachers' digital skills due to lack of systematic testing, as there was no plan to deal with this change so abruptly. We must look for ways to help our teachers improve so that technology is the main instrument which they use to create their lesson plans and adapt to the new reality.”

Nuria Romero, doctor and professor at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, explained the change for teachers and the problems brought about by the pandemic. She said: “A virtual teacher is one who reinvents his teaching, reuses and redesigns his abilities to create new content and find a new way to teach.” She also stressed the importance of avoiding a digital divide brought about by lack of facilities on the part of some students and that the teacher is responsible for making their content or presentations viewable by all.

The last speaker, Marga Cabrera, PhD in audiovisual communication and a tenured professor at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, commented on the tools that are necessary for teaching. This starts with the equipment, such as microphones or headphones, which are the most basic, but also includes the teacher’s creativity and how he or she decides to present educational videos, since a way must be found to keep the student constantly stimulated.