Updating the Materials of a Banana School in the Dominican Republic

Banelino is an organic Banana association founded in 1996 by seven small banana producers from the province of Montecristi, in the northwest of the Dominican Republic, very close to the border with the Republic of Haiti.  Banelino is made up of more than 330 small producers who own an average of three hectares and sell about 35,000 boxes of bananas per week. 95% of their production is organic and 90% is certified as Fair Trade. They have established a Banana School (Escuela Bananera) to teach its local farmers and other interested youth how to grow bananas.

However, their teaching manual needed to be updated to ensure it was computer friendly and more interactive for the students. Therefore, in mid-2019 Banelino requested a F2F volunteer to update their teaching materials and convert the manual’s contents into an e-learning platform. The chosen volunteer for this assignment was Shireen Lakhani. She holds a Masters in Instructional Design and Technology with a certificate in e-learning from George Mason University and has over five years of experience providing training in the use of software and technology, utilizing adult learning theories. She is an instructional designer at the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) and is part of a team that is developing a new training system from scratch.

Shireen traveled to the Dominican Republic from November 10th-24th 2019 to meet with Banelino staff and teachers. She reviewed the ten modules that they were currently teaching at the Banana School and helped them decide which ones could be converted into the eLearning format first. She also taught them the six microlearning principles and recommended that they be applied to all the in-person led modules. This will make converting the modules to eLearning much smoother in the future.

The six principles are:

1. Define the objectives for each module.
2. After the completion of each module, what would you like to see each student “understand” or perform?
3. Apply proven learning principles (spaced repetition, retrieval practice (knowledge checks), chunking, etc.)
4. Provide anytime, anywhere access so the content can be accessed online and students can learn at their own pace
5. Right-fit content format (use formats that allow #4)
6. Have a measurement strategy in place to keep track of whether the desired student behavior and objectives are being met and whether the program is making an impact.

At the end of her assignment, Shireen also recommended that they review the entire curriculum checking for logical sequence and removing “nice to know” content, that they add knowledge checks to identify what information is crucial to know, and that they add rubrics for performable actions (planting seeds, maintaining a particular crop, etc.). Thanks to Shireen’s work, the future generation of banana farmers in the Dominican Republic will be able to use e-learning and updated materials to acquire more knowledge in a more autonomous way.

Shireen commented of her assignment: “When I think of my trip to the Dominican Republic, I am filled with only positive emotions. I really believe in the objectives that Banelino has set and want to do everything that I can to help Banelino achieve them. With the initiative of the Banana School, Banelino has set out to share the wealth of knowledge that it has about sustainable farming with the youth in the surrounding cities. This knowledge being passed on, especially in a virtual format, has the potential of providing young people interested in agriculture with the opportunity to earn more. This means, improvements not only in their own lives, but that of their families too. 

Because I was so moved by my experience in the Dominican Republic, I have begun studying Spanish. I very much hope to return to Banelino and speak to everyone in Spanish!”