Page 12 - ELG2202 Feb Issue 479

TEACHER TRAINING .

PHOTO SHUTTERSTOCK

Empowering remote learning

in remote regions

The future of international training contracts is increasingly online, but providers
need to plan for problems with internet connectivity, so believes UK training
specialists NILE in Norwich

urrently working on a range of which had begun with face-to-face training British Embassy. This course uses materials
programmes for British Council in Tashkent, had to switch to online. It commissioned by the British Council and
teachers and trainers in the Middle was transformed using a combination of participants are given access to tablet devices
CEast and North Africa, NILE has synchronous training webinars, a bespoke to use while they’re taking it.
found itself having to work around internet asynchronous course on the NILE Online
problems in some lower-resourced regions. eLearning platform, and remote collaboration Staying flexible
“To make the courses more accessible, we’ve between smaller project teams and trainers. NILE’s dexterity with digital training owes
made much of the content downloadable and much to its experience with NILE Online, a
more suitable for use on mobile devices,” says In Uzbekistan, for platform it launched back in 2014 and which
NILE director Thom Kiddle. has had thousands of course participants.
Last year, NILE’s experience in adapting example, a three-year However, the onset of Covid-19 definitely
its course delivery to fit into the digital had an impact on training, as the organisation
environment for participants in remote areas project to develop EMI faced the issue of how to deliver its famous
was key to a major new project. With the teaching competences, face-to-face summer courses, which normally
backing of local IATEFL-affiliated teacher take place in the UK, and have expanded to
associations, NILE supported 17 English UK which had begun with face- Malta and Ireland post-Brexit.
member language centres. These ranged from to-face training in Tashkent, “The pandemic meant that we were able
Russell Group universities to small family-run to reframe the content to provide online
schools, delivering training courses to over had to switch to online versions of the traditional summer professional
3,000 teachers in 20 countries through the development programmes with a more
British Council PRELIM project – and all in Meanwhile, a three-year training plan with intensive asynchronous schedule and additional
the middle of lockdowns. Princess Nourah University in Riyadh, which live online sessions,” explalins Kiddle.
started with face-to-face training in Saudi, In fact, there wasn’t an element of
Special delivery has moved 100% online. The programme NILE’s training portfolio which didn’t get
This year, NILE is back in the thick of it covers academic management, assessment a digital makeover, even the initial CELTA
with PRELIM 2, this time working with and trainer training, and is also helping training programmes. The arrival of Covid
35 language centres to deliver projects in the University prepare for accreditation by led Cambridge Assessment English, the
40 countries. One key to this programme’s Eaquals, the independent, not-for-profit department of the University responsible for
success, and certainly something the UK association which runs a Quality Assurance EFL teacher training, to change its rules on
language centres valued, was the development scheme for language centres in a wide range remote observation and assessment, allowing
of yet another NILE digital solution: an online of educational sectors worldwide. online teaching practice. This meant that
Community of Practice. In Tunisia, NILE has trained over NILE’s existing Online Delta “was able to
Like many in language teaching, as the 5,000 primary teachers via synchronous flex to include online Module 2 assessment of
pandemic hit, NILE found itself having online sessions using a team of more than teaching,” says a NILE spokesperson, and so a
to rapidly shift existing projects online. In 40 specialist trainers based all over the world, new, fully-online CELTA was launched.
Uzbekistan, for example, a three-year project as part of an ongoing project with the British It all adds up to good news for would-be
to develop EMI teaching competences, Council, the Ministry of Education and the teachers in the far-flung corners of the world.
12 February 2022