Office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Jamaica. October 7, 2020 – The University of the West Indies (The UWI) Open Campus in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Youth Affairs and Sports in Montserrat is delivering certified online teacher training workshops entitled “Pivoting to Remote Instruction: A Professional Development Workshop Series for Primary and Secondary Teachers.”

The training is designed to equip 60 teachers and education administrators with the requisite skills and competencies to operate effectively in an ever-changing learning environment. It will involve two cohorts of educators with the first starting on Monday October 5 and the second starting on Thursday October 15.

The training consists of five workshops, each addressing a separate topic. The five workshop topics are Digital Literacy, Effective Online Pedagogy for Virtual Instruction, Google Apps for Education, a Capstone Project, and Advanced Tracks. Each workshop will offer authentic, activity-rich opportunities for participants to discover practical strategies for remote instruction, informed by evidence-based best practices.

The workshops will be delivered sequentially over a four-month period, followed by additional coaching, provided by the Open Campus, over a three-month period after the completion of the workshop series.

The series of workshops is a part of the response by the Ministry of Education, Youth Affairs and Sports in Montserrat to the COVID-19 pandemic which has turned traditional classroom instruction on its head across the world, including in Montserrat. The workshops will help the Ministry in Montserrat to minimize the learning loss resulting from school closures.

The workshop series is being coordinated and facilitated by the Open Campus Academic Programming and Delivery Division (APAD).