EnRHEd Project Newsletter – April 2021
Welcome to this first Newsletter of 2021 concerning the EnRHEd project updates for the period January-March 2021.
The year 2021 started with great excitement for the whole team as the project officially completed its first year of operation. However, the satisfactions did not stop there. In February 2021, the partner INES-Ruhengeri received the digital equipment financed by the EnRHEd project thanks to funds from the European Commission, while another partner, UTAB, finally installed and activated the first 27 computer stations for students and university staff. In addition, the new E-learning training officially took off in March 2021. This training will ensure the creation of E-learning expert teams in the four Rwandan partner institutions.
In the meantime, while waiting to start travelling again, the partner institutions share ideas on the best ways to strengthen Rwandan higher education in strategic areas for sustainable growth.
So, let’s take a deeper look at the work done in the last months….
ENRHED TURNS ONE YEAR OLD!
January 2021
“We need to have plans and to carry them out with dedication and passion: only in this way can we make our lives a masterpiece”
The EnRHEd Project officially has started one year ago on January 15, 2020 and the EnRHEd team has therefore celebrated the first year of activity on January 15, 2021.
This first year of activity passed very quickly and the EnRHEd team had to face the coronavirus emergency. Nevertheless, no one has lost heart and aware of the importance of the project objectives. The participants in the project belonging to the 7 Higher Education Institutions have immediately activated with great enthusiasm and spirit of initiative to redefine together some important project activities.
Since it was not possible to organize the mobility flows, nevertheless the EnRHEd team devoted itself to the following activities:
- Purchase, installation and activation of digital equipment and devices for 136,000 Euros/161,589,000 Rwandan francs to implement digital infrastructures, thus guaranteeing students and teaching staff easy access to distance learning;
- Improvement of the current digital teaching/learning platform to facilitate e-learning, connection between all HEIs and to allow learning continuity and to modernise teaching methods of the 4 Rwandan HEIs
- Review of current curricula in the field of Food Science and Technology (FST) and in the field of Environmental Protection, Safety and Management (EPSM) offered by HEIs in Rwanda by specialized teaching team to improve the educational offer of the 4 Rwandan HEIs.
A special thanks to all who help us make this project great!
Click here to see the news published on the EnRHEd website
DIGITAL LABS START TO TAKE SHAPE
February 2021
“The human passion and curiosity drive digital innovation”
To facilitate e-learning is one of the main objectives of the EnRHEd Project. To this purpose it is necessary to create the conditions to “start” with the activation and installation of digital teaching/learning laboratories at the four Partner Institutions, where students and teachers can easily access E-learning.
As previously announced in the last Newsletter, UTAB was the first Rwandan HEI to receive the digital equipment worth about 23,000.00 Euro/25,259,000 Rwandan Francs and immediately took steps to install the equipment received in the room that had already been formally designated to become a computer lab. The first digital lab was installed between November and January 2021 is already being used and participated in by many users from UTAB. A second lab will soon be ready for use.
Meanwhile, INES and UR have finally received their digital material to the value of 45,000 Euro/53,398,000 Rwandan Francs (for each HEI)thanks to the EnRHEd Project in February 2021: the digital labs will be installed soon in dedicated rooms.
We are proud to share with you some photos of the activated digital laboratory at UTAB and of IT staff members on the day they received the new equipment at INES!
To find out more about the aspect of digital infrastructures, click here
E-LEARNING TAKES OFF WITH A NEW INITIATIVE
March 2021
“Teaching in the Internet age means we must teach tomorrow’s skills today”
Thanks to the purchase of new digital equipment, financed by the EnRHEd project with funds from the European Commission, the four Rwandan Partner Institutions will be able to focus on innovative projects to digitize and modernize the learning methods of their teaching staff members.
To do this, however, there is a need not only for digital equipment but also for “human capital”, i.e. to form specialized teams within each institution capable of becoming a reference point for their colleagues in e-learning in the future.
With this in mind, and thanks to the invaluable help of the EnRHEd team members at RFH-Koln, a specific training course started in March 2021 with the aim of creating a team of experts in each Institution. Trained people are E-Learning Experts (ELEs), who have the task of developing digital teaching at their Institutions and/or in their faculties, and Pilot Expert Teachers (PETs), who will become E-learning reference teachers for the Institution. They will acquire didactic and technical competences by developing sample applications for digital teaching and in turn they will form the team of teachers in their faculties.
The courses, led by Prof. Stefan Ludwigs, have been very well attended by the designated members and will continue in the coming months through constant training of the team in both theory and practice.
Hoping to start travelling again and waiting to share with you some new Project updates!
THE ENRHED TEAM
