Panel SKI111
EPICA: Strategic Partnerships For Co-Design of Innovative and Scalable ePortfolios
African economies are growing and technological change is the engine of growth. To sustain growth, however, Africans need new skills, education and knowledge to match the challenges and technology of tomorrow. African students need the skills and capabilities employers will demand and markets will prize in the future. To meet this challenge, EPICA, a strategic partnership between Europe and Africa, is bringing together businesses, organisations and universities in both Europe and Africa to design an innovative, scalable ePortfolio, which will improve the quality, visibility and availability of new skills. Join the leaders of the project to hear about results and the road ahead.

Rosa García Calero
Project Manager, Director of Programme eLearning Africa, Spain
Rosa Garcia Calero was born in San Sebastian, Spain. She has a University degree in Pharmacy, specialised in the field of Dietetics and Nutrition Programmes, an MBA by a Madrid Business School and a Master Degree in Quality for Services. For 3 years she worked in institutions linked to the Universidad Complutense in Madrid and became a teacher in Vocational Education and Training Schools. In 1995 she started working as International Relationship Manager in the Spanish Association of Educational Centres (CECE). In CECE she helped other members to build an European Network of VET centres interested in developing new projects in the field of education, specially related with IT and Research Programmes. She became Vice-President of EFVET (European Forum of Vocational Education and Training) in Brussels. She was also member of the Administration Council of ELLI (European Lifelong Learning Initiative); Spanish Delegate of ESHA (European Secondary Heads Association), and member of other European Associations directly linked with education.
She helped many organizations in launching innovative programmes in IT, e-learning and life-long learning in a wide range of subjects. She worked as Project Manager in different National and European projects and also worked as a partner, coordinating the participation of Spanish members in several European projects.
Since September 2000, Rosa García Calero works as independent, her tasks mainly as a project auditor in different projects related to e-learning, and has worked for the European Commission in different Programmes: evaluator and reviewer of the 5th and 6th Framework Programmes (IST and Quality of Life), evaluator of European Initiatives and evaluator of several programme of DGEAC, like Leonardo da Vinci, Socrates, e-learning, etc. She organises training actions and seminars about European Project Management for companies and teachers in Spain. She has also worked for the Ministry of Education making audits of Leonardo da Vinci projects and being responsible of the quality control of the evaluation processes in different national call for proposals.
For 4 years, Rosa was the Responsible of Content of Online Educa Madrid, an annual Conference of e-learning held in Madrid, organized by ICWE GmbH (Berlin), being responsible of the programme and speakers. Actually she works in the Programme team of e-Learning Africa and Online Educa Berlin.
Links
http://www.e3-communications.com

Paul Birevu Muyinda
Senior Lecturer / Head of Department, Makarere University, Uganda
Paul Birevu Muyinda is an eLearning/mLearning specialist, a Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Open and Distance Learning at Makerere University, Uganda. He holds a Bachelor of Statistics Degree from Makerere University, a Masters Degree in Computer Science and Application from Shanghai University, a Post Graduate Diploma in Education (ICT) from University of Cape Town and a PhD in Information System from Makerere University. Paul has published and consulted widely in the area of e and mLearning. He has recently edited a book for Inteck Publishers on “Distance Education”. Paul has led a number of research teams on numerous research projects. He is currently a Principal Investigator in a Norad funded project for Leapfrogging 1st Generation Distance Education into 4th and 5th Generation Distance Education: A Strategy for Enhancing ICT Pedagogical Integration and Increasing Access to Education in Africa. Paul’s research interests are in the areas of open and distance learning, online learning, eLearning, mLearning, ICT4E and ICT4D.
Links

Beatrice Okoth
Lecturer, Coordinator Learner Support Services, University of Maseno, Kenya
Beatrice Okoth is the Coordinaor Learner Support Services at the eCampus of Maseno University.She undertakes the responsibility of training, monitoring and supporting online lecturers and students on online navigation of the Learning management system and online learning. In addition, she is an online course developer and facilitator.She has trained in instructional design for online learning, and online facilitation through the Commonwealth of Learning (CoL). She has also been an online student at the Simon Fraser university. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Literature and a Master of Arts degree in Applied Linguistics. She is currently a PhD student in Linguistics.