• 14 July 2022: Liberating Structures – An Introduction – The e/merge Africa team event postponed – please see new date

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Are you an educational technology user working in African higher education? Educational technology usage in African higher education has been changing for a while now, and even more so since the pandemic. Completing the e/merge Africa-IRCEES survey is a powerful act of participation in growing e-learning capacity across our continent. We need your help with this. The results will help us to design online opportunities aligned with your needs and suited to our African contexts. This survey should take between 15-30 minutes to complete. Please complete the survey HERE.

To join please sign up via Zoom here 

Date and Time: Thursday, 14 July 2022: 15:00 – 17:30 SAST Please note new date for this event

Description of the session:  

In designing meetings, learning activities and workshops our most generative and productive experiences are found in the zone between the extremes of total control (which silences participants) and a complete absence of structure (thus no focus for shared engagement). Liberating structures are meeting processes designed to provide just enough structure to unleash the brilliance and creativity of a group of people. Liberating Structures were originally designed for face to face interaction and have been extensively applied to online engagement during the pandemic. 

The e/merge Africa team will introduce the concept of Liberating Structures and facilitate a highly experiential workshop which features five structures, namely: Waterfall, Impromptu Networking, Spiral Journal and Conversation Cafe’. The Liberating Structures website features 33 of the over 50 structures that have been developed. 

Session guides:  

The e/merge Africa Team

Irene Maweu is an Online Facilitator for e/merge Africa Facilitating Online Course

Tony Carr is an Educational Technologist in the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching at University of Cape Town and convenor of e/merge Africa. 

Dr Alice Barlow-Zambodla is e/Merge Africa Network Regional Coordinator for Southern and East Africa

Jakob Pedersen is Project Manager for e/merge Africa, Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT), University of Cape Town

This year the Facilitating Online course will be running three times with the following cohorts:

6 June – 29 July – Apply by 23 May 2022  (uptake closed)

5 September – 28 October – Apply by 19 August 2022

For all cohorts please apply here

About the course

Facilitating Online provides a solid foundation for facilitating online events and courses. It is registered as a short course at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Facilitating Online was developed by the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT) at UCT and is funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York as part of its support for the e/merge Africa network. It is convened by Tony Carr and co-facilitated by facilitators from across Africa.

We consider applications in the order in which they arrive so earlier applications stand a higher chance of being accepted

Recommendations by participants

“I learned many facilitation skills that I am now able to apply with my own students. I would recommend the course highly to anyone embarking on the online teaching and learning journey.”
Dr Judith McKenzie, Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Cape Town.

“This course doesn’t just teach you ABOUT online Facilitation, it actually gets you to facilitate … It’s a real opportunity to learn and develop. And what’s more? It has an African taste…”
Daniel Adeboye, Online Maths Tutor, Tutor for the Future

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