As part of the efforts and trends of the university towards the digital transformation, the President of Al-Furat Al-Awsat Technical University, Prof. Dr. Hassan Latif Al-Zubaidi, initiated the fourth course on teaching methods for medical, engineering, applied, educational, humanitarian, administrative, and agricultural disciplines. The course was organized by the Continuing Education Center at the university within the management system of the development training programs in 2023-2024 according to the updated curriculum of the ministerial program.
In the beginning, the University President welcomed the participants and explained the importance of the course in providing participants with the necessary skills in how to prepare lectures using modern technologies that keep pace with technological development in the world. He stated that such specialized training program is a promising qualitative step to develop the work of the Continuing Education Department, which came within the goals and mission of the university in serving the various segments of society.
It is noteworthy that 175 trainees participated in the course, 25 trainees for each session from various universities and educational directorates of Babil, Karbala, Samawah, Qadisiyah, and Najaf Al-Ashraf.
It is worth noting that the Continuing Education Center has completed about 12 courses in various disciplines, and about 300 trainees from various Iraqi universities have graduated from these courses, in addition to participants from the Ministry of Education. In addition, there are six ongoing courses that are about to end, with 150 trainees.
The first introductory lecture entitled (Teaching Methods towards Blended Learning according to the Updated Curriculum in Continuing Education Centers) was delivered by the trainer accredited by the Ministry of Education and Scientific Research, Dr. Aqil Salem Najm Abdul Jaber, a member of Evaluation and Follow-up Project Implementation Committee for Teaching Methods Courses Curricula Development.
He added that the modern teaching methods course is one of the requirements for academic teaching in public and private universities. The course will continue for three months, during which the trainee will receive a number of training units. The first four units include lectures on “blended learning, design of education, measurement and feedback, and digital content development”, then a ten-minute lecture prepared by the trainee and evaluated by the trainers’ committee. In the remaining units, the trainee receives lectures on “facilitation strategies, professional ethics, quality of education, and research methodology.”
The Director of the Continuing Education Center, Professor Dr. Mahdi Hatem Kazim, stated that the course lectures will be delivered by competent trainers from the colleges and institutes of the university under the supervision of the ministerial team, and will follow in-person, electronic, and self-education systems, indicating that the last week will address the second test, which includes a recorded lecture for 60 minutes prepared by the trainee, followed by the third test that covers the preparation of the educational portfolio in the given discipline, where both tests are evaluated by the trainers’ committee.
It is also mentioned that the participants’ registration in the course was conducted via logging into the training programs management system, entering participants’ data, and method of fees payment. Moreover, the tests will also be performed through the system until the final result and issuance confirmation are received.
The registration will begin in the next days upon the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research approval to start the teaching methods courses for all disciplines.
