DGRV e.V. is proud to announce another new milestone in the era of modern Co-operative learning in Kenya! We are launching the “Co-op Basics Online Course” – a teaching app which enables Co-operators nationwide to enhance their Co-operative know-how anywhere anytime from their smartphones.
The “Co-op Basics Online Course” contains 6 different learning sessions which are geared to enhance the learner’s Co-operative skill set in a non-academic way. A third of the Kenyan population are members in a Co-operative. Whereas this extention of economic participation is great, many Kenyans did not enjoy any form of Co-operative education prior or during their membership. It is therefore high time to make Co-operative education widely accessible to those who own the Co-operative enterprise: Its members! After downloading the app from Google play store, the learner is progressively taken through a comprehensive but playful learning experience spread over 6 modules. The E-Learning experience is garnished with earning credits and bedges along the way. Passing an easy test after every session unlocks a new content module for the “Co-op Basics Online Course” learner. Though the tests are designed to rather be a “piece of cake“, the learner‘s motivation to score too high throughout the course is triggered.
To institutionalize Co-operative learning in Kenya is one of the core approaches of the BMZ funded DGRV project in Kenya. Together with our project partners we pilot a decentralized and member-driven education concept on County level. In a nutshell, primary co-operatives pool together to form their own education and training Union. The Unions are called “CETIC” (Co-operative Education, Training and Information Centers). They offer tailor-made education products to their members and act as a meaningful Co-operative lobbyist on County level. The “Co-op Basics Online Course” sizeably expands the outreach of these education centers, the main marketer of the app, as Co-operators in the most remote places can download the software to their smartphones and start their own Co-operative learning programme independently!
DGRV Kenya would like to sincerely thank the developers of the Co-operative, Education Toolkit for Trainers, which inspired the development of the “Co-op Basics Online Course”. The “Education Toolkit for Trainers” is an excellent tool developed under the framework of the Erasmus+ Program of the European Union together with DGRV and other partners. This activity is a lovely evidence of the 6th ICA principle “Co-operation among Co-operatives” as it allows the Kenyan Co-operative movement to digitally participate in Co-operative education practiced in other parts of the world.
