Open Education Resource Certificates Awarding Ceremony

This event took place on the 6^th of November, 2008 at the CYP RCA grounds in Lusaka. About 110 certificates were awarded to educators from various learning institutions in Lusaka including the university of Zambia (UNZA), Zambia center for accountancy studies (ZCAS) and Evelyn Hone College.

After giving a brief background of CYP's vision and mission, Brian Sikute, ICT coordinator saw it necessary to revise with the OER graduates, the major things which they had learned during the OER training. During this recap session, the graduates shared with each other the major soft ware applications they had learned.  Brian however urged the graduates to use the skills they had learned to the maximum degree.

Commenting on the OER training, James Odit Regional Director, CYP RCA, stated that this training will provide a long-term conceptual framework for alliances in the creation, sharing and provision of educational resources based on a strong emphasis of reusability. He commended the graduates for the job well done. However in his concluding remarks, Odit said that the graduates should pass on the knowledge they gained to others so that someone elsewhere can also be empowered.

Victor Mensah, Programme Manager, Youth Enterprise and Sustainable Livelihoods (YESL) was also present at the occasion. In his opening remarks, Victor said he was so grateful that graduates are now able to put in to practice most of the skills learned through the OER training. He expressed the need for OER graduates to make useful the skills acquired. Doing so will promote user-centered approaches in education and lifelong learning because users not only consume educational content but develop their own ePortfolis, and share study results and experiences with peers. He greatly commended this type of interaction.

Worth mentioning was the presence of Dr. Ngandu, Registrar of the Universityof Zambia. Speaking on behalf of the 25 institutions, Dr. Ngandu expressed his pleasure over the excellent soft ware applications learned by the graduates. He encouraged them to place content on the web so that others too may benefit from the knowledge acquired through OER training.