CXC learning hub slated for September roll-out
Published:Thursday | May 10, 2018 | 12:00 AMSyranno Baines/Gleaner Writer
With plans afoot to roll out phase one of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) Learning Hub in September this year, pro registrar of the council, Dr Carol Granston, is advising candidates across all 19 CXC-served territories that the online platform will have resources to support all syllabus objectives.
It will have the capacity to host resources in multiple formats such as audio, video, animation, text, images, hyperlinks, e-books, and links to CXC social media platforms.
"We want to ensure that all candidates who write CXC products have access to high-quality learning-support resources. It is a part of the mandate of the council," said Granston, who heads the Jamaica office of CXC. This office has oversight for materials, syllabuses, and curriculum development, making Granston a key figure in the creation of the hub.
"Right now, we have syllabuses in one place, exemplars in another place, and study guides and past papers somewhere else. So what we're doing with the learning hub is taking everything and putting it in a single location. You sign on one time and you have access to all the resources, some free, some not so free," she explained.
Granston said that the hub would provide an integrated system that housed myriad resources that could be accessed by learners in two ways: freemium and premium. The freemium content would be free of cost, whereas the premium content would attract a fee. She disclosed that resources available on the freemium platform would include interactive syllabuses, subject reports, practice tests, and digital tool kits that contain digital resources for learners and teachers, including info graphics, animations, audio, images, and videos. Phase one would include free access to many of these features.
PREMIUM CONTENT
Premium content, Granston advised, would include games, process animations, and other multimedia learning objects that have been created by CXC, but indicated that the cost to access the premium content has not yet been determined.
Noting that the last set of data for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate examinations showed that a large number of candidates were age 17 and over, Granston argued that the platform would greatly benefit persons not enrolled in formal schools.
"If you're not an in-school candidate, then you are not likely to have a teacher who is helping you prepare for the exams, and those candidates, we think, require this additional support, and this is what we're doing through the learning hub," she explained.