e-learning

Accessing Capacity-Building via elearning

The PEV SADC project envisages an eLearning component to make up for fact that far from all key players and beneficiaries will be able to attend a real-time workshop. Towards this end, an innovating eLearning course is currently being undertaken by the Actions eLearning Advisor. The online courses are converting the content that is delivered during the LEAD training programe, making it available to an unlimited number of relevant stakeholders challenging geographical and time constraint.

The eLearning is an excellent tool for knowledge dissemination within the SADC-ESN network. Following from the LEAD training held in DRC, an eLearning workshop was held in Kinshasa from 12 to 19 December 2013 to design the curriculum of the modular eLearning course. The European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES) is adopting this innovative approach to produce electoral content using audiovisual material and interactivity to enable the deliverance of a series of face to face training and distance eLearning. ECES has demonstrated that this approach improve the harmonisation of relevant concepts, key to a coherent and sound electoral process entailing several players from different fields. The content allows for knowledge dissemination in a cost-effective and flexible way, constituting an online-based nation-wide infrastructure. Electoral stakeholders ranging from staff at the central headquarters of an electoral administration, to districts down to polling stations level can take part of this knowledge-sharing tool. ECES embarked on an endeavor to develop an eLearning Master in Electoral Management jointly with the School of Electoral training in Central Africa, which is a centre specialised in electoral training with mandate from the General Secretariat of the Economic Community of Central Africa States (ECCAS) to strengthen the capacities of the different electoral actors in the region. The eLearning component conveyed in the PEV SADC project will this greately benefit from being developed concurrently as the Master. 

The content produced that lies at the heart of the Master, covering the entire electoral cycle, will be entirely made available under eLearning format and serve for both face-to-face and distance training and capacity building initiatives. Face-to-face training will be delivered under a "hybrid" format, benefiting from the audiovisual and interactivity material produced in eLearning format to preserve the quality of the concepts, instructions and messages.

ECES and EFEAC are supported by SCYTL, a Spanish company spin-off of the University of Barcelona specialised in software products for electoral purposes for the improvement of the implementation of each step of an electoral cycle. SCYTL turns the storyboard of the content of each courses produced by ECES and EFEAC into an eLearning format and supports the management of the dedicated elearning platform.

In addition to face-to-face training, the innovative content produced will be gathered in 18 modules, creating all together Master in Electoral Cycle Management. This cutting-edge training program aims at improving technical and theoretical skills of all electoral stakeholders of different professional level. It allows beneficiaries to enhance their capacities to make use of the electoral cycle in a concrete and contextual way that fits their daily work.