The Scientific Council
Our Scientific Council is an international body. It is responsible for validating and certifying digital modules/courses produced before they are published online.
Our Scientific Council has already conducted evaluations and certifications for Avicenna projects in several regions. This council was created with permanent status and is operational with all new Avicenna projects or equivalent. The members of our Scientific Council speak several languages: English, French, German, Arabic, Spanish, Turkish, Russian, and Azerbaijani.
A quality assurance methodology was developed by the Council members. This methodology has been adopted by the main partners of the Avicenna network consortium in the Mediterranean, Africa, Central Asia, and the Arab region.
The Council members are experts in the stages of managing the Quality Assurance and validation process for digital content/courses.
The Council's role is:
o Validating digital content production specifications
o Certifying learners who have completed training in digital instructional design.
o Validating digital content developed for online publication and making it available to all teachers in the education sector.
Following the training of teachers/trainers on the various modules related to digital instructional design, the Council is responsible for Certifying learners who have completed training in digital instructional design.
At the start of the digital content production process, the Council will ensure:
- The selection of priority courses to be produced,
- The selection of expert producers for the creation of digital content,
- The establishment of official author contracts between the partner institution and the trainers/teacher producers,
- The appointment of technical teams to monitor production,
- The signing of author contracts (copyright and production plan, with specifications validated by the Scientific Council).
After the production of the digital content, the project will be responsible for:
- Analysing and validating the specifications for a module (20 hours)
- Verifying compliance with UNESCO's Avicenna pedagogical model
- Analysing the author's contract signed by the producer or members of the production group, if applicable
- Using and completing the quality assurance sheet for evaluating digital content
- Analysing and validating the content of the course area in collaboration with subject specialists
- Drafting the final evaluation report for the digital module (or course)
- Participating in the drafting of the final report of the Scientific Council
** All of these activities of the Scientific Council are conducted online.
Training of Scientific Council Members
For each new project, we officially create a scientific council. Council members are selected according to specific criteria. Members of the Scientific Council must hold certificates in Digital Instructional Engineering.
Members require training in the process of evaluating, validating, and labelling digital content.
Theoretical and practical training is mandatory for all members of the council. After a skills assessment, a certificate is issued at the end of the training.
The training for Members of the Scientific Council focuses on UNESCO's Avicenna Quality Assurance System (AQAS).
At the end of this training, if the results of the practical work are satisfactory, the learner (member of the Scientific Council) will receive a DIGITAL SKILLS CERTIFICATE on quality assurance and evaluation of online digital content.
Working documents are made available to members of the Council before each session:
- The Specifications Template.
- The Quality Assurance Sheet Template.
- The Minutes of the Scientific Council Meeting Template.