CENECOOP R.L. embarks on an ambitious plan
Didactic guides for cooperativism teaching purposes
La República
San Jose, Costa Rica
CENECOOP R.L. embarked on a project to digitalize didactic guides to teach students on the topic of cooperativism.
For several months, the Center on Cooperative Studies and Training (CENECOOP R.L.) has been negotiating with Aura Interactiva the implementation of a project to digitalize the didactic guides used by the Primary and High School Cooperatives from the Ministry of Public Education to teach on the topic of cooperativism in compliance with Law 6347.
The purpose of this initiative is to start using the Internet for learning purposes and to disseminate the use of e-Learning processes, which is an Internet-based teaching process that includes the design and development of a learning environment suitable for this kind of education.
To ensure the success of this project, CENECOOP R.L. entrusted Aura Interactiva with the project implementation; Aura is the regional leader in the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of Internet-based educational processes with a population of over 600.000 participants.
This effort is based on an institutional policy defined by the Administration Board and Executive Directorship from CENECOOP R.L., key for national development; therefore, CENECOOP R.L., considers that this will be a strategic move in favor of Costa Rican cooperativism to start developing projects aimed at expanding and diversifying the use of technology both in educational processes and daily endeavors of our organizations.
Design and development of an interactive CD
Based on the aforementioned approach, steps were taken to create a work team composed of employees from the Research and Development Area from CENECOOP R.L., from the Primary and High School Cooperative Department from the Ministry of Public Education and Aura Interactiva.
From October to December, both entities worked on the conceptualization, instructional design, graphic design and programming, and produced a version that is being validated by teachers and students from I and II cycles.
Once this stage is over, changes will be incorporated in the final version, which will be mass distributed in schools, in cooperation with the Primary and High School Cooperative Department from MEP, as well as in cooperative organizations interested in sponsoring this effort that will strengthen the training and education of school populations in areas such as principles, values, history, and cooperatives in Costa Rica.
The CD is two-and-a-half hours long and will show three modules whose topics were interactively developed thus allowing students and teachers to start learning about cooperativism in a fun and innovative fashion.
The Center on Cooperative Studies and Training (CENECOOP R.L.), aware of the fact that the future of cooperativism lies in the hands of the next generations, decided to contribute to e-Learning in order to mass distribute cooperative theories and values among the school population in Costa Rica, so that it reaches every school in the country in a standardized way.
In this case, CENECOOP R.L. will deliver a pedagogical virtual training solution (approved by the Primary and High School Cooperative Department from MEP) which will have all the benefits from andragogical e-Learning, but it will include an instructional design customized to the target population.
The first part of the course “Cooperativism for students” is ready, and it was developed together with Aura Interactiva. The project will be progressively implemented in 2005, and CENECOOP R.L. will be responsible for distributing the CD-ROMs and for the widespread dissemination of the tool.
If you want to have more details on this project, you can contact the Research and Development Area from CENECOOP R.L., by dialing 253-5590, extension: 111 or writing to: msalazar@cenecoop.com, to Marco Aurelio Salazar who is responsible for this area.
