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Despite abruptly having to stop his university studies, Benjamin Flomo was able to find a career as an M&E professional after completing TechChange’s Technology for Monitoring and Evaluating Diploma Track in June 2017. Benjamin shared his experience with us below.

Q: How did you find out about TechChange?

I was studying Mining Engineering at the University of Liberia for about four years. Unfortunately things got difficult and I had to drop out of the college with no skill, degree, or experience.

I started to look for jobs to support myself and family, but it was difficult due to not having a degree. At the end of 2015 after the Ebola outbreak in Liberia, I decided to travel to the countryside to look for opportunities.

Fortunately, I got an Internship with IBIS Liberia as an Administrative Intern, and I started a newsletter for the Institution covering the program’s activities each month. Suddenly, their Monitoring and Evaluation Officer resigned in a very tight time and I was offered the post of Monitoring, Evaluation, and Communication Assistant. Due to my lack of technical experience in Monitoring and Evaluation, I looked for online courses that would build my experience and skill for the new profession.

I took almost three months searching for some good online courses until I found the Diploma for Technology for Monitoring and Evaluation with the Institute for Technology and Social Change (TechChange). I took a week or so to study the website and the content of materials (modules) that were designed for the entire Diploma Track Package. The modules were quite impressive, and I found that the lessons offered were what I needed to become a full Monitoring and Evaluation professional and more.

I got even more motivated from the blog and I made the decision to enroll after I contacted TechChange’s CEO Nick Martin and other TechChange staff. I started the Diploma Track in March 2017 and completed it in July 2017.

Thanks to TechChange, I am having to decide between two different opportunities presently. My present employer has decided to increase my salary and extend my contract because of a competing offer from Handicap International.

Q: How have you been able to use what you learned at TechChange in your work?

After completing the course, I got my first contract in August 2017 with Handicap International to conduct an assessment for an emergency project called RASP (Rehabilitation and Social Protection) as a data officer.

In December 2017, I worked as an M&E Consultant for a local NGO, WYCF (Wi Yone Child Foundation) to set up their M&E framework and database.

In February 2018, I started working with SOLTHIS (Therapeutic Solidarity and Initiatives for Health) as a data officer to conduct the baseline survey for the TB Speed Project and to develop a database for the ITPC (International Treatment Preparedness Coalition) – CTO (Community Treatment Observatory) Project for NETHIPS (Network of HIV Positives) Sierra Leone.

Thanks to TechChange, I am having to decide between two different opportunities presently. My present employer has decided to increase my salary and extend my contract because of a competing offer from Handicap International.

Q: How would you describe your TechChange journey?

I completed my secondary education in 2007 with the St. Christopher Catholic High School in Kakata City, Margibi County – Liberia with 6 credits, enrolled in 2010 into the University of Liberia becoming an Honor Student for two years but unfortunately left because of some financial issues. This left me without a degree, money, experience, and skill after four years of studies. On the other hand; I spent just five months with TechChange in a Diploma Program called Technology for Monitoring and Evaluation and I got everything and even more than what I expected. Today with the help of TechChange, I have built a career that I cannot even imagine. Presently, I am attending an international University; BlueCrest College of Technology – Sierra Leone studying up on software engineering while jobs are available to me. I am proud to say, “I am a M&E Professional with strong database development skills”. What are you waiting for… find yourself a career within international development today by joining the TechChange community.

 

TechChange’s M&E Diploma Track is back this July. Find out more here. Register now to reserve your seat in our fall cohort and be one step closer to taking your M&E career to the next level.

Nancy recently joined the TechChange team as an Instructional Design fellow! She is a rising junior from Swarthmore College, where she studies Political Science and Peace and Conflict Studies.

We recently sat down with Nancy to learn more about her background and experience. Welcome to the team!

Q: So… how are your first weeks at TechChange going?

I am wrapping up my first two weeks at TechChange and they have been spectacular! I am learning how to use Articulate Storyline 360 to create online courses and I think I’m getting the hang of it! I look forward to the upcoming weeks ahead and to all the knowledge, skills, and experiences that I will gain here at TechChange.

Q: Could you share a bit about your background before joining the TechChange team?

My background mostly stems from being a teacher in other parts of the globe. Last summer, I worked at the Collateral Repair Project (CRP), an American NGO that provides aid services to urban refugees in a poverty-stricken neighborhood of Amman, Jordan. At CRP, I taught English to adult refugees and facilitated the children’s summer camp. My job included creating a well-paced curriculum for the beginner’s English class that I taught independently, as well as designing lesson plans for the children’s camp activities. Along with teaching classes, I facilitated conversations, proctored/graded tests, and corrected everyday homework. It was an immensely rewarding experience overall because I got to work with students who were genuinely eager to learn, and I was supporting a largely overlooked community in Amman. I also volunteered at an underprivileged community center during my time in Morocco, where I helped facilitate an after-school program for children. In most of these contexts, I have had to teach in environments where there is a lack of resources and materials. For example, there was never enough books for all the students in Amman so I would have to photocopy papers for everyone, and I constantly imagine how different the situation could have been if the information was digitized and the technological resources were more widely available. I think online learning is such a promising complement to traditional styles of learning in places all over the world, and it is why I am at TechChange!

Q: What originally interested you in joining TechChange?

Much of what the team does at TechChange aligns with the work I am trying to do next summer in southern Egypt as a Swarthmore Lang Scholar. My Lang Opportunity Scholarship (LOS) project, Agents of Resilience, aims to address the lack of educational/employment opportunities available to young orphaned women of the Coptic community (ethno-religious minority) as result of institutionalized religious persecution, societal stigma, lack of opportunities due to underdevelopment, and sexism. This project is meant to start a basic computer literacy mentoring program and certification process in the underdeveloped southern region of Egypt. In the hopes of keeping my project sustainable, I was assessing the feasibility of implementing online learning as a solution. When discussing my project and summer plans with some Swarthmore professors, one of them recommended that I look into TechChange for a fellowship. After talking with the CEO and connecting with some Swarthmore students who were already working there, I knew that this was where I wanted to be!

Q: How does Instructional Design fit into your interests?

As someone who is very interested in international development, I see huge potential in online learning as a method to help empower people all over the globe. I believe that once online learning is widely accessible, easy to navigate, and engaging to the learner, the possibilities for change are endless. I am interested in improving the education system in southern Egypt (starting with my project Agents of Resilience), and I think that eLearning is a good way to enhance and complement the system already in place.

Q: What is one thing that you’d love to learn or do this summer?

Along with decrypting all the secrets behind instructional design and curriculum building, I would love to spend time and learn from the other teams in the office as well. Everyone at TechChange has such a diverse skill set, and I think this is such a unique opportunity to learn from the people around me since TechChange makes it so easy for me to do so. At some point during my summer, I would love to learn from the creative and tech teams or delve deeper into fields that I know very little about like film/photography. Being at TechChange also means that I am constantly learning no matter what, even if it is from the courses that I am building, and I think that in itself is truly spectacular.

Q: Lastly, what’s something that not a lot of people know about you?

The birthday stated on all my official documents and forms of ID including my birth certificate is not my real birthday. I was actually born on March 22nd in the middle of the day but my mother really wanted me to be born on Egyptian Mother’s Day which is March 21st so she made it happen. Every year, I celebrate my birthday on the 21st (the date my mother fabricated), which is to say, I have fully embraced this scam.

Learning Machine Technologies, architect of the Blockcerts open standard with the MIT Media Lab, is the world leader in blockchain-based digital credentials. With a standards-based, in-market Issuing System for multi-chain issuing and self-sovereign digital identity, their offering is revolutionizing the way businesses in all sectors issue and verify claims and the way individuals understand and use their digital identities.

This September, we will be issuing our course certificates for our next Blockchain for International Development course on the blockchain with Learning Machine! Natalie Smolenski, Learning Machine’s VP of Business Development, walked us through the process (which you can learn more about below) and will be featured in the course as one of our guest experts!

Q: In a few sentences, what is Learning Machine and what is the problem you’re trying to solve?

Learning Machine is a global firm that deploys best-in-class credentialing systems for governments, corporations, and educational institutions using the blockchain as a secure anchor of trust. Today, people don’t own their official records–instead they rely on a cumbersome human verification process which collapses the moment a software provider or issuing institution ceases to operate or loses the records. This not only holds back economic development–making it more difficult for people to get jobs, sell property, or start businesses, for example–but leaves entire populations vulnerable to losing all record of their achievements in the event of catastrophes like war or natural disasters. With Blockcerts, individuals cryptographically own their digital records forever and can independently verify them anywhere in the world, instantly and for free. No ongoing dependency on Learning Machine or any other vendor.  

Q: How are decentralized credentials different from what I might get from my university registrar?

Any credential you currently receive from your registrar–digital or paper–must be verified in some way by that registrar in order to serve as a gateway to opportunity. This means that it’s not enough for you to have a copy of your credential–you generally can’t use it, because only “official” versions of the credential, verified directly by the issuer every time, can be used. So you can’t, for example, Snapchat your transcript to an admissions committee, because they can’t verify it that way. Decentralized credentials, on the other hand, are digital credentials that you directly own. They are tamper-evident–meaning that if anyone tries to edit them, verification will immediately fail. You can send them to anyone you want and they can verify them instantly and for free–without ever needing to check with the issuing institution. Decentralized credentials mean that even if your school goes out of business or you have to flee your country, you can still keep your records and have them verified.

Q: What are some of the challenges that you face in gaining adoption and traction?

The blockchain is still pretty new, and people are on a learning curve to understand what it is and why it’s better than a traditional database for some things (like decentralized verification). There is also a lot of FUD out there about blockchains–a lot of misinformation that people have to battle against to find their real value. But the world is already well on its way to making blockchain mainstream. Like the internet, it’s just a matter of time before everyone starts using it for some things–without needing to know what it is or how it works.

Q: What are some compelling examples and case studies of Learning Machine in action?

Every day there are new announcements about company x, y or z intending to do this or that with the blockchain, but Learning Machine actually delivers. Our software has been used to issue Blockcerts since Summer 2017, when MIT launched its Digital Diplomas project. Since then, many other universities have joined and issued their own credentials. Countries like Malta have rolled out Blockcerts certification nationwide, issuing blockchain credentials to students in both K-12 and Higher Education. The Bahamas is now following suit, using Blockcerts to certify graduates of their National Apprenticeship Programme. There is no shortage of countries and companies wanting to start their own blockchain certification projects next.

Q: What else should people know about Learning Machine?

Think of Learning Machine as the blockchain A-Team: we can do things few others can do. In addition to world-class engineers (we co-chair the W3C Credentials Community Group building the next generation of blockchain-based identity), we’re a team of philosophers, artists, and social scientists out to tip the balance of power toward the individual in a world where that seems increasingly impossible. Verifiable credentials are just the first step toward maximizing human potential through groundbreaking technology. Every human being is, after all, a Learning Machine.

To enroll in our next offering of Blockchain for International Development, click here!

After starting as a Marketing and Communications fellow in spring 2018, Danielle officially joined the TechChange team in a role split between Instructional Design and Creative. Prior to TechChange, she was a Program Associate at the Society for International Development – Washington Chapter, where she worked on event planning, graphic design, and marketing projects for the international development community.

We recently sat down with Danielle to learn more about her background and experience at TechChange. Welcome to the team!

Q: So, tell us more about yourself. How did you end up working in design and international development?

Well, that story begins where my-would-have-been medical career ends. Growing up, I always thought I’d end up in the medical field. But after completing a social innovation fellowship with Kaya Collaborative in the Philippines after my freshman year of college, I realized I could make still make a positive impact in the world without having to breakdown over biochemistry. I eagerly switched my major to International Relations and have been pursuing opportunities to work and think globally ever since.

As for graphic design, it was a random hobby I picked up in college. Designing t-shirts, social media graphics, event posters… it was through random projects like these that I taught myself Adobe Creative Suite. Over time, I’ve come to realize how important design can be for storytelling and social change, and I’ve been able to put that theory into practice here at TechChange.

Q: How did you first hear about TechChange?

I came across TechChange during my time at SID-Washington. TechChange was listed online as an Institutional Member and it sparked my interest due to its social enterprise business model, focus on education, and emphasis on user-centered design. As I was looking for opportunities after SID-Washington, TechChange immediately came to mind as a place where I could put my design, marketing, and communications skills to good use.

Q: What are some of your favorite parts of working at TechChange so far?

First and foremost, the people! Everyone at TechChange is incredibly talented and passionate about their work both in and out of the office. Finding a balance between working hard and having fun has been surprisingly easy thanks to TechChange’s supportive environment.

Apart from the people, I also love being able to work on important projects that reach a global audience. In my short amount of time at TechChange, I’ve already worked on a sexual harassment prevention training with USAID, an ICT in Education policy guide with UNESCO Bangkok, and started a project with the Ministry of Finance in El Salvador! I can’t wait to see what comes next.

Q: What excites you about Instructional Design?

Many things! First of all, it encompasses several of my interests – design, psychology, technology, among others. As an Instructional Designer, I love that I can continue learning and spreading knowledge on important topics like gender, education, etc. There are also many opportunities to be creative and I like the challenge of figuring out how to best design a course in a way that is effective and engaging.

Q: Anything you look forward to working on or learning at TechChange in the next year?

I’m excited to expand my creative skillset and work with clients to create high-quality and thoughtfully designed products!

Q: Lastly, what’s something that not a lot of people know about you?

That I spent two years of my childhood living in the Philippines. It was definitely a life-changing experience that helped me get in touch with my Filipino heritage and even learn to speak Tagalog!

We are excited to announce our first partner highlight featuring the TechSoup Platform! With a current selection of 22 courses and 8 learning tracks, the platform includes 7,973 learners from 88 countries — and still growing fast.

Founded in 1987, TechSoup has over 30 years of experience as a global nonprofit network that equips changemakers with transformative technology solutions and skills to create a more equitable world. This includes discounted software, hardware, services, and training, as well as opportunities to network and build community, including through a global partner network of 70 civil society organizations. TechSoup has reached 993,000 organizations, and delivered $10 billion in technology tools and philanthropic services.

When TechSoup first approached TechChange about expanding their programs to their first-ever online learning platform, we wanted to preserve and support what had already made their model so successful for delivering expert-led tech training and webinars designed for nonprofits, charities, and libraries. Just as each partner need and online learning community is different, the challenge is making our platform work for partner engagement models and not the other way around.

So in order to better understand our partners, TechChange sat down with Susan Hope Bard, Director of Solutions & Services at TechSoup, to learn about why they chose the TechChange online learning platform and how they’ve used it to address their needs.

“What I like about the platform is that learners drive it. So we’re not necessarily forcing learners to complete something in a linear fashion… I think that’s really important in terms of the way adults learn”

Getting Started with TechChange

Using the TechChange platform, TechSoup designed an online learning environment that put their audience – the nonprofit staff member – first. “[Nonprofits] all have different goals, missions, and reasons for taking courses,” Bard states, “so we provide people with the flexibility to take what they want and what they need.”

Knowing that staff members often juggle multiple roles in their organizations, TechSoup offers their learners the opportunity to engage with courses as they see fit. Learners can interact with one another in real-time through live-webinars or explore module materials and forums at their own pace. All live sessions are recorded and can be accessed at any time, making keeping up with content easier for learners.

Unlocking Nonprofit Institutional Knowledge

“What you find with nonprofits is a lot of people who have a good bit of knowledge about a particular topic but they need some scaffolded support in order to adopt technology to help them serve their mission.”

The TechChange platform is built for customization and content integration, which means TechSoup can easily provide the scaffolded support their audience needs. “There’s such a wide variety of uploadable content and the format is so varied that it can address the needs of any learner,” explains Bard. TechSoup integrates a variety of customizable content (videos, checklists, self-assessments, documents, etc) that make for a more engaging and exciting learning experience.

Should users want a structured learning approach, they can even enroll in a TechSoup learning track. TechSoup uses these tracks to curate courses along specific themes or skills. By following a track, a learner can develop a well-rounded foundation on a certain topic or build upon previous coursework in a sequential manner.

Track Performance and Learner Engagement

“Tracking learner engagement is important so we know how people are using the platform and what content is valuable.”

Discovering what content is most valuable for their audience is simple. As learners explore course materials and activities, TechSoup can use activity tracking tools to monitor student activities and interactions and track updates, comments, and replies. With the TechPoints system, where users are rewarded with TechPoints in exchange for completing activities like logging in or attending a webinar, TechSoup can see which learners are most engaged and what content they’re engaging with.

Our platform analytics tools help to capture essential information about event attendance, learner metrics, content engagement, and more. There’s no need to guess what works and what doesn’t – TechChange tracking tools can show you. Using this insight, TechSoup can design and develop even better courses for their learners in the future.

Looking to build your online learning community?

Let TechChange help. Learn more about our platform or request a demo. 

Note: This post was written in collaboration with Erica Chin, Instructional Technologist and Medical Illustrator at Jhpiego.

The instructional design team, led by Director of Instructional Design, Shannon Fineran, is proud to announce the release of a landmark course series designed for the Maternal and Child Survival Program (MCSP) at Jhpiego in partnership with USAID. The course is currently being piloted among health practitioners from several health care facilities in various regions of Liberia.

Unlike a stand-alone training course, the faculty development program provides a blended approach and a social program delivered over a five-month period. Faculty that participate are offered a supportive environment to build confidence, leadership, change management, and teaching skills. It includes three instructor-led training sessions and two rounds of individualized eLearning course facilitated by a moderated discussion platform for peer support. The individual eLearning course is comprised of 15 modules organized into three sections: Theoretical Learning, Clinical or Practical Learning, and Student Assessment and Program Evaluation. The program is centered around the completion of a change management project relevant to improving educational quality or teaching skills.

 

 

The team at Jhpiego’s Technical Leadership Office, led by Julia Bluestone (Health Workforce Team Lead) and supported by Erica Chin (Instructional Technologist and Medical Illustrator) and Alison Trump (Technical Advisor), worked closely with TechChange’s instructional designers to create this engaging, comprehensive course series that utilized interactive content presentations, knowledge exercises, resources, and individual module assessments in each section of the program.

The project posed a series of delivery challenges for the instructional design team. The Faculty Development Program is intended for release in regions of low internet connectivity, prohibiting technical design strategies typically used in a more traditional eLearning course. Because of this, the course was delivered via individual USB drives with the course pre-loaded onto them. Additionally, the course’s intended audience had varying levels of computer literacy and experience with technology. To minimize potential learner confusion, the team created a single main menu to provide direct access to all modules and cohesive course navigation. The main menu, itself a separate Articulate file, included a course module tutorial, as well as “scene selection” style sub-menus for module selection.

 

 

TechChange opted for a streamlined course interface design, implementing a static menu on the left side of course slides and recurrent course navigation buttons at the bottom of course slides. The Articulate publishing process was particularly complex for the instructional design team — the course needed to be offered offline, had a complex Articulate-to-Articulate branching scheme, and needed to be launched from the double click of a single button to allow for ease of use. All of these challenges resulted in new discoveries for the team.

Want to learn more about how the team reached a publishing solution? Stay tuned for another blog post on how to use relative linking for offline distribution!

For more information on the MCSP program at Jhpiego, please visit this link.

As we settle into 2018 and launch a variety of new courses, workshops, and ways to innovate our approach to online learning, we’re thankful to you, our TechChange community, for your unwavering support! In the last year, we’ve trained over 7,000 people from 155 countries on our platform alone.

Check out a few of the cool things we were able to do in 2017.

We’ve released new features on our online learning platform!

  • Frontend editing: Course administrators can now type directly into the platform section that you would like to update or add information to. The new inline editing feature means easy access to editing/updating content, a cleaner design, and a direct way to see real-time updates of changes that you’re making to your course content.

 

     

  • Completion tracking: Course administrators can now track module completion with our new rules feature. By simply setting “rules” for each slide, submodule, and module, learners will be alerted with a green check mark if they have completed the appropriate section.

 

 

  • Progress view: Course administrators can now view the progress of their students holistically with the new progress view. Based upon the rules of each course, the progress view details where students are in relation to course completion, when they were last active, and which modules have been completed.

 

We’ve developed informative interactive modules!

  • IFC Gender Course: TechChange partnered with IFC (International Finance Corporation) to create a multi-module course on the business case for gender smart solutions. The course is customized with three different industry tracts that users can choose between depending on what is most relevant to their work.
  • Jhpiego MCSP: The Faculty Development Program represents a major accomplishment for the Instructional Design team over the summer and fall seasons. The program is centered around best practices for medical practitioners and is meant to improve educational quality and teaching skills for practitioners in Liberia and beyond.
  • CCAP: TechChange built a self-paced course for the Coastal Cities Adaptation Project of Mozambique that focused on the basics of climate change, adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and urban resilience. The course featured many video interviews (filmed by TC staff) with important stakeholders involved in climate change management in Mozambique.  

We’ve created some beautiful content!

  • Making Cents International Report: An exciting collaboration between the Instructional Design and Creative Teams for The Rockefeller Foundation & Making Cents resulting in a youth-oriented toolkit for demand-driven training. Click here to view the report and here to view the interactive website!
  • DCA animation and pamphlet: USAID’s Development Credit Authority (DCA) uses loan guarantees to increase access to finance and promote growth in developing countries. The creative team was tasked to create multiple short animations to explain how the Development Credit Authority works and its benefits to those in developing countries. Click here to view our whiteboard style explainer video and click here to view our mobilizing local wealth for entrepreneurs around the world animation .
  • DIAL animation: We had the pleasure of working with DIAL (Digital Impact Alliance) to explain the Principles for Digital Development and its importance to the digital development community. The team was tasked with creating a 2 minute explainer animation that is both attractive and informative. Assets and animation was spearheaded by our senior illustrator & animator John Kim. Click here to watch the video.
  • mPowering animation: The Creative Team worked on a beautiful animation for mPowering’s OpenDeliver, a mobile-enabled delivery system for health resources that includes a feedback loop to supply analytics. Click here to watch the video!

We’ve hosted interesting workshops and traveled to many places!

  • Mozambique for CCAP: In January 2017, Shannon, Emily, and John traveled to Maputo and Pemba, Mozambique to record interviews with key stakeholders involved in climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction efforts across the country. The interviews were incorporated into the four-module self-paced course built to empower individuals with the fundamentals of climate change, preparedness, and urban resilience.
  • Maine for PopTech: In October, the TechChange team headed to Camden, Maine for the 2017 PopTech Conference: Instigate, where we provided tech support, photography, and conference marketing support.
  • Boston for Connected Health Conference: In October, Chris, Yohan, and Meronne went to Boston, Massachusetts to provide event support with photography and video interviews.
  • Qatar for WISE: Chris and Austin traveled to Doha, Qatar for the World Innovation Summit on Education (WISE Summit) for a series of plenaries and workshops on the future of education.
  • Washington, D.C. for the World Bank Youth Summit: Nick gave an interactive workshop on blockchain for international development.
  • Instructional Design Workshops: Throughout the year at TechChange Headquarters, Isabel lead different instructional design with Articulate 360 workshops. Click here to sign up for the next one!
  • TechGirls 2017: For the fifth year in a row, we’ve had the honor of hosting two brilliant young leaders from the TechGirls State Department program. This year, Passant Abu-el-Gheit and Reem Saado shadowed the various teams hard at work making online courses in the TechChange office, and contributed a few creations of their own. Read the full blog post here!

We’re launching new online courses!

  • TC116 Blockchain for International Development: This four-week online certificate course will attempt to cut through the hype and evaluate the potential of this technology on everything from remittances to supply chain management, voting practices, smart contracts, land titling, educational credentialing, health record storage, and more. Learn about the course here!
  • TC310 The Future of Digital Health: This four-week online certificate course will explore how a range of emerging technologies — blockchain, artificial intelligence, drones, sensors and Internet of things, wearable devices, and more — are contributing to patient care and management, disease tracking, point-of-care support, health education, remote monitoring, diagnostics, supply chain management, and logistics.The course will also take a hard look at complexities surrounding patient privacy and security, limits to access, training and capacity building challenges, interoperability issues, regulation and policy hurdles, and more. Learn about the course here!
  • TC301 Artificial Intelligence for International Development: This four-week online certificate course will cover the basics of artificial intelligence from natural language processing and object differentiation, to comparative facial recognition and more. It will draw from a variety of case studies, particularly in financial services, education, and healthcare. It will also explore challenges to adoption that exist around automation, hype cycles, ethical concerns, security, sustainability, and more. We will also explore machine learning, a narrower subset of AI that focuses on data analysis and building algorithms that reduce the need for human intervention. Learn more about the course here!
  • TC101 Online Learning for International Development: This four-week course will include a number of innovative case studies as well as demos of our favorite emerging technologies to support and enhance learning. Over the past 8 years, TechChange has built 500+ online courses on all kinds of topics for a variety of audiences and in a range of formats. In that time, we have had to contend with every imaginable hurdle: diminished attention spans, bandwidth constraints, translation issues, security challenges, and more. This is why we’ve decided to package all of this experience into an online certificate course. Learn more about the course here!

As we continue to build and create beautiful courses, we’re excited to start licensing our online learning platform to organizations and continue building our expertise in online learning. A recent study on capacity building done by the Global Knowledge Initiative listed TechChange as the number one cited source individuals and organizations used most to improve curriculum design, further teaching pedagogy, develop online modules, and build presentation and facilitation skills. We look forward to continue building our online learning skill sets.

We hope to see you online, in person, or in a course!

Nithya has recently returned to TechChange as a Web Developer with our tech team! Two years ago we launched our first round of summer fellowships, where Nithya was actually a part of our inaugural group of tech fellows (see her previous staff highlight here). We took some time to talk more about her background and how it feels to be back at TechChange. Welcome to the TechChange Team, Nithya!

 

Q: So, what have you been up to since the end of your previous TechChange fellowship?

After my TechChange fellowship, I finished my last year at Harvey Mudd College and did a year of contract engineering projects in a variety of countries, including India, Myanmar, and Mali. I’m trying to figure out how to combine my tech skills (everything from programming to mechanical engineering) with my passion for tackling pressing social issues, especially with a focus on developing countries. I loved the travel and working on the ground in so many different places, with so many different people.

 

Q: What brought you back to TechChange?

The last couple of years have been filled with many very enriching experiences, but I’m still working on figuring out what kind of a path I’m hoping to continue down in the longer run. Especially given the intensity of my past year, I wanted some time to process, reflect, and research what could come next. However, I also didn’t want to stop feeling productive and driven to solve problems. Being at TechChange a couple years ago gave me my first taste of the social impact world and many members of the team have continued to be great sources of support and inspiration since. Coming back to TechChange has been the perfect way to contribute to an organization I believe in, work with a truly fantastic team, and do some exploring to figure out my future goals.

 

Q: How does web development fit into your interests? What interests you in your projects?

To be honest, I don’t know yet. There are a lot of ways web development can play a role in the kind of work I aspire to be part of, but there are also a variety of other types of technology/engineering that I have loved building. I think web development is a skillset I hope to maintain and grow, regardless of whether it is full-time or on the side. My work with TechChange keeps me learning on a daily basis and I’m excited to tackle as many problems I can. The great thing about being a developer at TechChange is that I know, at the end of the day, every piece of code contributes to organizations and projects around the world that are doing work I support.

 

Q: What is one thing that you’d love to learn or do in the next year?

I’d love to learn a new (spoken) language (or work on any of the languages I know partially), spend time in a new country, and figure out what direction I am taking my career. It will be a great year if I can manage to see a bunch of friends and family in the process too, given that I move around a lot.

 

Q: Lastly, what’s something that not a lot of people know about you?

I often play minesweeper while watching TV – yes, the game from forever ago where you click squares and try not to let bombs go off. Turns out it’s actually a logic puzzle if you don’t just play by randomly clicking squares! I can’t sit still long enough to just watch television like a normal person, I guess.

Sedinam joined the the TechChange team to support service design and tech initiatives. She will be focusing on supporting partner learning objectives on the TechChange platform. In addition to graduating from Swarthmore College with a B.A. in Computer Science and Economic Development, Sedinam also co-founded Dislabelled, an organization that works with people with disabilities and seeks to reform the special education system in Ghana. She also founded YenAra backpacks in 2015, a socially responsible for-profit business initiative that provides unique and functional African-inspired backpacks to an international marketplace.

Sedinam is passionate about the intersection of technology, business, education and design. In her summers, she has worked as a Google policy fellow, robotics workshop facilitator and software developer. In her free time, she loves harmonizing to everything under the sun, writing articles and meeting new people! Welcome, Sedi!

 

 

Q: Could you share a little bit about your background? What originally interested you in TechChange?

I was raised in Ghana and my family, community and education have contributed significantly to who I am today. In high school and college, I had opportunities to interact with people from a wide range of differences in culture. These experiences deepened my knowledge of cultural differences and I learned to not only respect but also to celebrate diversity.  These experiences also fuelled my desire to learn about people and know more about their stories.

I had the opportunity to first meet some members of the TechChange team during a Mapping for International Development Happy Hour two years ago when I was interning in DC. I read about the CEO of TechChange who was a Swarthmore alum (shout out to Swat!), felt connected to TechChange’s mission, and being the inquisitive person I was, I wanted to learn more. After spending hours discussing various topics from the need for accessibility of technologies to why liberal arts colleges are beneficial, I left the event with the sense that TechChange was a community of friendly, supportive and passionate people that I would fit in with.

Coupled with hearing more about experiences working at TechChange from Swarthmore alumni and students, I was drawn to work at TechChange for three main reasons amongst many: the opportunity to learn and apply my skills in a fulfilling, exciting and creative way, the collaborative team culture at TechChange and a company mission that is at the heart of technology and social change, a purpose I identify with and value deeply. Learning that some of these courses benefit African countries was definitely a highlight to me as a Ghanaian. So far, I can say  that it’s been a great decision and I’m glad to have found a job straight out of college where I wake up genuinely excited about the work I’m doing and the people I get to see!

Sedi's First Day

Q: How do you see this role with TechChange fitting into your studies and past experience as an entrepreneur?

My role at TechChange is currently at the intersection of instructional design, tech, and client partnerships. I love that I can apply my Computer Science knowledge into fully understanding how our platform works both on the frontend and backend. I also love that I can deepen my knowledge about web development.

I am interested in international development so the opportunity to interact with clients from various international development organizations doing amazing work is one that I value immensely! TechChange fits wonderfully into my past experience as an entrepreneur because I get to try my hands at various activities at this company and it’s so exciting.

With my backpack company, I identified a business opportunity when students on my college campus kept commenting about the colorful patterns in my Ghanaian clothes and backpack. Through market research and talking to various students who were involved in diverse areas of campus life, I studied the backpack wants and needs of students on campus. I recruited some of my friends and family to join my team, including a chief operating officer that determined quality control of the backpacks from the local artisans, a designer that sketched our prototypes and a marketing strategist that helped me think about the website design, flyers and questionnaires. Working with the designer, our team came up with functional and attractive designs based on our market research, built prototypes and solicited feedback from customers in the Philadelphia area.  

It was a long-term process of planning, conducting market research, developing pricing strategies, designing posters using Adobe Indesign and learning, learning, learning. I learnt so much about myself during the process and about social enterprises. Similarly, having a job where I’m actually at the intersection of cutting edge work is more than I could have envisioned for myself.

TechGirls2017_Image1

Q: How do you see your role going forward to build on your work with co- founding Dislabelled and founding YenAra Backpacks?

The question of my role going forward in both organizations was one I definitely had to grapple with in deciding my next steps after college. I still have so much learning to do and YenAra backpacks helped me to do so much learning by actually doing. That being said, I decided to put that on hold to focus more on transitioning to a new work environment and giving my entire self to my role at TechChange. It was definitely a beneficial entrepreneurial experience and I can definitely see myself applying the skills I gained from that experience to my job. With Dislabelled, I am still involved and working with amazing team members to coordinate and organize events! Dislabelled has been run since high school and a lot of it has been during holidays and by coordinating activities remotely. Currently, we have successfully undertaken five projects and our team is working on the sixth project. In one of our projects, titled “SustainAbility” our team led the creation and compilation of a white paper that documented changes on government policy that teachers from various special education schools in Ghana voiced. Our current projects involve organizing informative workshops for parents who have children with disabilities in Ghana.. Outside of work, it is the passion initiative that I can focus on and our team is fantastic.

 

Q: Could you share a bit more about your interest in special education and how that applies to technology?

My interest in special education came about in high school, where we had a speaker who had cerebral palsy come and talk to our Pan-African club at school about her disability. Following that, I worked as a Google Policy Fellow in my sophomore year with the American Association of People with Disabilities as my host organization. That’s where I became even more interested in the intersection of special education and technology. America was celebrating the American Disability Act the year of my fellowship  and I had the opportunity to participate in Special Ed Initiatives including the AAPD Technology forum and the Higher Ed Accessibility project. I also worked on a research project concerning people with learning disabilities and the role of assistive technology. The deeper and deeper I dug into my research the more questions I found. Questions I had included: how has technology been used to positively impact special education in various countries? How do people with physical, intellectual and learning disabilities use technology and in what ways does their technology use differ?   How can we make technology more accessible especially in developing nations and what are some obstacles that prevent special educators from using technology to enhance teaching in their classrooms? I still have those questions and these questions sustain my interest and technology and special education.

 

Q: I know it’s only been a week, but what are some of your favorite parts of working at TechChange so far?

The people here are truly amazing. It’s been great to go home and be able to rave to my roommate about how supportive and fun people here are! One of my favorite parts was the potluck where everyone had to bring a meal item. There was an amazing sense of community and it felt like I was not only part of a team but a family of some sort. Another favorite part of my time here so far was meeting TechGirls and teaching them how to build their own courses on the TechChange platform. As someone from Ghana myself, it was really awesome to see TechChange hosting girls from Middle East and Africa and actively showing them the work we do here. I was inspired by how the team was genuinely interested in sharing their work and encouraging the girls and I was reminded for the billionth time about why this place is such a strong fit for my interests, values and passions!

Sedi and the Instructional Design Team

Q: What is one thing that you’d love to learn or do in the next year?

In the next year, I am excited to gain more experience in managing client partnerships effectively. I love interacting with people and I can’t wait to see how I can use this skill in ensuring our TechChange clients remain happy! I also hope to broaden my global network and perspectives. As a member of the tech team, I also can’t wait to deepen my coding skills even further, specifically in JavaScript/CSS, and learn from the various teams at TechChange including the instructional design and business development side of things. I also want to learn more of what it takes to successfully build an online learning community. I deeply value being in a company like TechChange where I can see first hand the many aspects of running a successful company.

Q: Lastly, what’s something that not a lot of people know about you?

I love love dancing! In college, I taught several dance classes and participated in an Intergenerational Drum and Dance Ensemble. As a student academic mentor, I managed to also weave in several dance wellness study breaks where I led dance workshops to Afrobeats music! I’m actually going to share a couple of links below to some of the songs/beats I’ve been listening/dancing to recently! I need to share the love, haha. Hope you enjoy it and thanks for the opportunity to share a bit of my story!

 

Beat de chez beat- Coupe Decale

Adomaa- Evolution of GH Music

Chance the Rapper- Blessings

Sonnie Badu- Ese Oluwa

 

For the fifth year in a row, we’ve had the honor of hosting two brilliant young leaders from the TechGirls State Department program. This year, Passant Abu-el-Gheit and Reem Saado shadowed the various teams hard at work making online courses in the TechChange office, and contributed a few creations of their own!

Before they finished up their program, we asked them to share a few things about themselves and their work. 

Q: What projects are you currently working on?

Passant: I am currently working on a project related to STEM fields, which is Rumen fluid incubation, that helps in increasing the efficiency of the biomass incubators.

I definitely enjoyed the course that we designed today at TechChange, as it is related to the TechGirls program follow on project, as they both rely on online courses to spread knowledge and raise awareness. We designed a course that recites and illustrates some of the experience that we had during our 3 weeks stay in the US. We designed it in an interactive way so that the user can learn efficiently. This course was designed by the help of the software tools that the TechChange staff has, and of course, with the help of the staff members, we added animations, designed avatars, and texts. After finishing, we uploaded it. This experience is interesting to me because it will help me in my follow on project!

 

Reem: I’m working on the follow on a project that should be done when we go back to our countries. Basically, I am planning to teach the basics of coding to the girls in my school in order to motivate them to major in the STEM fields. In addition to that, I am planning to make a workshop that includes leadership skills. Also, we did some projects today at TechChange; one of them is making our own online courses to inform girls about TechGirls program and the beautiful experience we had.

Q: What was your favorite part of the job shadow day at TechChange?

Passant: I’d say it was the very first part when we designed our pug, it was really fun and educational because it was my first time drawing on an electronic tablet, and we ended up having a beautiful design. The process was really efficient, as it transferred the design from the very basic lines to a 3D avatar.

Reem: My favorite part was building our own online courses. We designed it in line with the schedule that we had across our TechGirls summer program. We wanted to spread the amazing experience through pictures and videos.

Snapshot of the sample course Passant and Reem made describing their favorite parts of the TechGirls experience.

Above: Snapshot of the sample course Passant and Reem made detailing their favorite parts of the TechGirls experience.

Q: Any company would be lucky to land driven, talented individuals like yourselves. What kind of work do you dream about doing in the future?  

Passant: I have several interests in more than one STEM field, and fortunately, I found a field that combines most of them, which is biomedical engineering. I am planning to be a medical machine developer (a person who design medical machines for special conditions).

Reem: The kind of work that I dream of doing in the future is programming. I am planning to be a software engineer and work in Microsoft company.

We feel so lucky to have spent the day with Passant and Reem and look forward to the impact they’ll have in the future!