See the OTGA movie
The OceanTeacher Global Academy (OTGA) Project aims at building equitable capacity related to ocean research, observations and services in all IOC Member States. The OTGA Project aims to develop a global training centre network and utilize this network to increase national capacity in coastal and marine knowledge and management. The OTGA Project builds upon the achievements of the OceanTeacher Academy project (2009-2013), which developed a Learning Management System and teaching programme that has successfully organized 42 courses on ocean data and information management, involving over 1300 participants from over 120 countries, at the IOC Project Office for IODE in Oostende, Belgium. The regional implementation strategy makes training programmes self-driven with great attention to local requirements, language and culture. The OTGA is based on local ownership as the Regional Training Centres (RTCs) are supported by the host countries. In addition the OTGA validates the expertise available in developing regions and promotes their self-reliance in terms of specialized technical training and higher education related to ocean science, observation and data/information management.
The OTGA aims to change the training culture from a “north to south” model to north-south, south-south, and south-north. Whereas training was traditionally based on experts from developed regions to visit and teach developing country students, the OTGA promotes the expertise available in many regions. The OTGA aims are to:
- Promote the establishment, and assist with the start-up, of Regional Training Centres that will plan, organize and implement training courses that are of relevance and serve needs within their region and teach these in locally relevant languages;
- Promote the use of local experts as lecturers and training assistants by the Regional Training Centres;
- Promote the collaboration between the Regional Training Centres by enabling (through advanced information technology) lecturers from multiple regions to contribute lectures;
- Further develop the OceanTeacher Learning Management System to cover multiple IOC (and associate) programmes.
The OTGA will further promote collaboration and exchange of expertise through new internet-based technologies such as video conferencing, video streaming etc. between the Regional Training Centres (RTCs).
The project document is available for download.
The OceanTeacher Global Academy Regional Training Centres
The Regional Training Centres are selected based upon the following requirements/abilities:
- At least 1 RTC for each region and language group
- Initial focus on IODE
- Complementary to existing regional training centres
- Self-driven, based on locally available expertise
- Co-located with other ongoing and funded programmes/projects
- Sharing of courses with other RTCs using video conferencing technology
- Inviting of specific expert lectures through video conferencing
- Use of common OceanTeacher Platform
The following Centres have been designated as OceanTeacher Global Academy Regional Training Centre:
- Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras José Benito Vives de Andreis (INVEMAR), Santa Marta, Colombia
- Institut Senegalais de Recherches Agricoles (ISRA) / Centre de Recherches Oceanographiques de Dakar-Thiaroye (CRODT), Dakar, Senegal
- Kenya Marine & Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI), Mombasa, Kenya
- School of Coastal & Marine Sciences - Eduardo Mondlane University, Quelimane, Mozambique
- AfriCOG/Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa
- Institute Of Oceanography And Environment (INOS)/Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT), Terengganu, Malaysia
- International Training Centre for Operational Oceanography (ITCOocean-INCOIS), Hyderabad, India
- IOC Project Office for IODE, Oostende, Belgium
Each RTC has desigated a number of resource persons:
- Principal Lecturer(s)
- Teaching Assistant(s)
- Administrative Assistant(s)
- Technical Support Assistant(s)
The technical development and maintenance of the OceanTeacher platform is be assumed by the Project Technical Manager (based at the IOC Project Office for IODE, Belgium).
Courses are organized mainly based upon available expertise within the RTC and also taught by RTC experts (Principal Lecturers and Teaching Assistants). IF needed Invited lecturers can be invited to teach topics that do not fall within the expertise of the local lecturers. Course materials are uploaded and accesible via the OceanTeacher platform by all Principal lecturers, Invited lecturers and teaching assistants.
The OTGA project is managed by the IODE Steering Group for the OceanTeacher Global Academy. The project formally started on 5 August 2014. However in preparation for the start of the project all candidate RTCs (listed above) were visited and assessed between January-June 2014 (except ITCOOcean which was visited in 2013). Detailed assessment reports are available upon request.The OceanTeacher Global Academy Kickoff meeting was held at the IOC project Office for IODE, Oostende, Belgium between 12-16 January 2015.
The OceanTeacher web site: www.oceanteacher.org