Worcester College of Technology is awaiting the arrival of five representatives from Zambia Open University (ZOU). Their visit will focus on investigating and learning how the College uses e-learning to enrich education possibilities for learners.
In a recent trip to the ZOU Information and Learning Technology Director Peter Kilcoyne installed a new e-learning system Moodle which will enable the university to effectively communicate and teach 50,000 students; compared with the 5,000 learners they are presently supporting through paper based systems. Peter also spent 3 days in Zambia training teaching and technical staff in the use of Moodle and how to use it to deliver online learning.
Dr Henry Kaluba, vice principal of ZOU said, “I would like to express my own gratitude and the appreciation of our Zambia Open University for you coming over to facilitate our training in E-Learning. It was such a delight to have you and thank you for the excellent training you provided to our staff.”
None of Peter’s work would have been possible without Computer Aid a charity which refurbishes old computers and sends them direct to African learning institutes. So far they have sent over 160,000 PCs but with the recession this supply has slowed up, just when the need is increasing.
In addition Peter held an online auction in December 2009 to raise more money for Computer Aid. The auction included many African artefacts which he acquired during his trip to Zambia. The total of £284.00 was donated directly to Computer Aid.
Please Note: Computeraid.org recycles computers that UK organisations are throwing out and refurbishes them and wipes the hard drives with software used by Mi5. The computers are then sent to Zambia and other developing countries. Computer Aid is always in need of more computers; to donate visit their website and the computers will be picked up and wiped of any sensitive material.