OpenEd20

Synchronous and asynchronous online teaching was completely underutilized in Latin America before Covid-19. By early 2020, online higher education in Argentina was at the same stage as higher education had been fifteen years ago in the USA. On March 16th, 2020, all the in-person classes and training opportunities were canceled in Argentina due to the pandemic. As academics, researchers, and teachers with deep ties to the Latin American research and teaching community, we saw the need to train teachers in applying practical, easy-to-implement, and evidence-based teaching techniques that allow them to move their classes online effectively and on short notice. Hence, we founded MetaDocencia, an open, free, volunteer-lead, not-for-profit, educational organization and community.
MetaDocencia empowers Spanish-speaking instructors to teach effectively using evidence-based teaching practices. We develop and deliver reusable training resources on concrete and practical student-centered teaching methods. We also nurture an inclusive and collaborative educational community. We achieve our mission with the work of a fast-growing group of volunteers with experience in teaching technical skills, delivering online classes, and working remotely, both locally and globally. We actively participate in and even lead global open communities, such as The Carpentries, LatinR, and R-Ladies Global.
We have largely focused on a 3-hour workshop called “Introduction to Online Teaching Essentials”. This hands-on workshop builds on open educational resources to teach how to run a synchronous classroom and includes practical evidence-based tips for delivering an engaging online class. This is a first-steps workshop where we introduce all the basics from our teaching philosophy (e.g., code of conduct, open licensing, community building, privacy). Participants experience each of our tips and advices starting at pre-registration and stay in touch afterwards through our Slack. Since March 27th, 2020, we taught this workshop 38 times to a large fraction of the 1,100+ Spanish speaking teachers who registered their interest, with over 90% completion rate. All MetaDocencia’s services are free and are carried out through 100% volunteer work, with a small grant by Open Bioinformatics Foundation to cover infrastructure costs.
During this session we will share our experience, hoping that it will enlighten others who are also willing to build open and inclusive communities to improve education.

Learning Outcomes:
Attendants will get practical advice on how to prepare and deliver student-centered online workshops using good teaching practices. They will be presented with open educational resources to directly incorporate in their classrooms and the steps to replicate MetaDocencia in their local communities.