Why Am I Doing This? – Converting a Classroom Course to eLearning is Not as Easy as Pie

The first step in my roadmap for converting a classroom course to an elearning experience is to choose the course I want to convert, identify who my target audience is, and most importantly, question the rationale for undertaking this assignment.

Why am I doing this?
In my earlier years teaching at a community college (1996 – 2010), my courses were considered to be unconventional because most of the activities took place outside of the classroom. As far as I was concerned, students could only learn Tour Packaging and Guiding and Travel Consultancy skills through experiential learning. For courses such as Travel Geography with heavy content, I used a community service learning approach to ensure that the students connected with the material in a meaningful way. In 2011, I also worked with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), through its Distance Training and Education Center (CECADI) to develop an online agroecotourism course. However, although I was the course coordinator for this programme, the technical aspects were managed through the OAS Education Portal.

My role has evolved from course development and construction to management of multiple courses, most of them competency-based. (Think Crop Production, Animal Husbandry, Butchery, etc.) However, the learners operate in a structured schedule of attending face-to-face classroom sessions several times per week including practical, technical training interactions with instructors to keep students on task. But now all that has to change.

Comyn (2020) observes that COVID-19 is affecting learning at all levels but especially adult education, work-based learning and Technical and Vocational Education and Training. Since restrictions in movement and social distancing protocols were implemented nationally, operations at the N/CVQ (National and Caribbean Vocational Qualifications) Centre for which I am responsible have come to a grinding halt.

Nevertheless, our strategic partners and donors have been asking when we will resume training, assessment and certification, and whether we will be providing online or blended solutions. Clearly, the expectation is that we make the shift to online learning as an immediate and longer term solution. Moreover, since all of the courses offered are agriculture related, there is more pressure to resume capacity building actions for this sector. As a team leader and N/CVQ Centre Coordinator, it is therefore imperative that I understand the mechanics of converting traditional courses to elearning.

Course Choice and Target Learners
For initial conversion I selected an academic course named Caribbean Travel and Tourism so that I can learn the rudiments of building an online course using materials meant for face-to-face learning. The plan is to select a vocational course in the next round to see how many more steps (if any) are involved in the conversion process.

After some consideration, I decided to make the Caribbean Travel and Tourism course accessible through a global library on a Mobile Learning Management System (LMS) hosted by EdApp and UNITAR. Their goal is to empower and educate millions of learners around the world by providing increased global access to free, high-quality and impactful education.