CERTIFIED BLACKBOARD TRAINERS PROGRAMME

This programme ran from July 18 until August 12th this year guided and facilitated by Jenny Bergh – a seasoned educationalist and eLearning Consultant at Eiffel Corp.  It’s an intensely challenging course that leads trainees through the practical and pedagogical perspectives of creating and delivering a 50minute training workshop on one of the Blackboard Learn Tools.  The focus is on being a good trainer as opposed to being a good Blackboard trainer and the course covers effective training practices as well as andragogic precepts of training adults, which can be more demanding than working with younger people.

Nine trainees from Tshwane University of Technology (Keneilwe Molotsi and Julia Makola), Vaal University of Technology (Rishi Sukraj, Liesl and Pieter Roos, Hanlie Herbst, and Lerato Thabane) and the University of Free State (CC Nel and Nanette Mulder) worked tirelessly on the 3week online portion of the course and then met at the Eiffel Corp HQ in Rivonia (Johannesburg) for 3 days of face to face presentations.

The trainees were all extraordinary and awe-inspiring in their abilities to present truly interesting and innovative workshops on even the driest of tools.  Energy and enthusiasm radiated from them as they took their students through 50 minutes of active training on a live platform.  The mix of people, cultures, ages, universities and topics provided a profoundly rich and enjoyable learning environment.  Everyone managed to score far more than the 80% requirement and walked away with a valuable internationally certified qualification which will stand them in good stead anywhere in the world.