OSCE Border Management Staff College concludes workshop on eLearning courses

Participants engaged in a brainstorming session on creating new learning designs at the OSCE Border Management Staff College in Dushanbe, 07 September 2017 (OSCE BMSC/Sino Ruziev)

ELearning is a form of knowledge delivery that is being increasingly used in our societies for the efficient delivery of academic and professional training. From 5 to 8 September 2017, the OSCE Border Management Staff College (BMSC) in Dushanbe delivered a workshop on the design, development and implementation of eLearning courses, which aimed to assist national border security and management agencies to unlock the potential of digital learning technology.

Fifteen representatives of national agencies and associated training institutions from Belarus, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Portugal, Tajikistan, and Ukraine attended the four-day workshop, which was organized in co-operation with the Federal Academy of Finance of Austria. They explored the pros and cons of eLearning as a vehicle for delivering professional development and other specialized training courses, with a special focus on learning management systems and multimedia tools for improving the efficiency of course delivery.

“With the help of eLearning, adult learners working for border security and management agencies can stay at their duty stations and enhance their skills and knowledge at their own pace,” said Ilona Kazaryan, Chief of Development and Outreach at the BMSC. “With this course, delivered by experts from the Austrian Federal Academy of Finance, the BMSC has been able to offer participants some of the most advanced expertise available in this field.”

Karl Wappel, the Director of the Federal Academy of Finance of Austria, said: “The workshop was very special for us as instructors since the participants were also experts in the training field. Thanks to the many practical examples they contributed and their impressive presentations on future projects, we were able to address the topic from many different perspectives.”

The topics covered included educational design for eLearning, eLearning theory and strategies, the implications of digitalization for educational institutions, chances and challenges in eLearning, multimedia tools, learning management systems, personal roadmap and stakeholder analysis, functional training and train-the-trainer courses in a digital environment. The course also addressed risks associated with eLearning, such as limited financial resources, low internet speeds or an inappropriate target audience.

“My main area of interest was the risks connected with the development and implementation of eLearning courses, and these were fully addressed,” said Dmitrii Ciolac, Leading Expert in General Management of Human Resources Unit at Moldova’s Interior Ministry. “The Austrian colleagues took an all-encompassing approach, and I am confident that I will be able to use the knowledge gained to facilitate the launching of our own eLearning component once I’m back in my agency,” he said.