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Open Institute is a Cambodian NGO created in 2006 to facilitate access to information and education through computers in Cambodia. Its first projects were standardizing how Khmer was used in computers (to UNICODE, the KhmerOS project) and translating free common-use computer applications to the Khmer language.
<br />In 2007, Open Institute started collaborating with MoEYS on a first Master Plan for ICT in Education, and prepared curricula and materials to teach ICT to teacher trainees in NIE. The first Master Plan was completed in 2009, and Open Institute worked on the curricula and the textbooks for teaching ICT in grades 11 and 12 (these textbooks books are still in use). While also working on other ICT for Development projects, Open Institute continued its collaboration with MoEYS by preparing curricula and materials to train upper secondary teachers and MoEYS national and provincial staff on the use of ICT. Since then, Open Institute has participated in creating most of the policies related to ICT in Education, and many other MoEYS ICT-related projects, including the systems to monitor the Child-Friendly Schools framework.
<br />In 2016, after working with VSO on phone applications to help teachers learn how to pronounce the English lessons they had to teach in schools, Open Institute decided to start a program to support students in the basics learning of Khmer through the use of workbooks and hired for this purpose the pedagogical team formed by Mrs. Pamela Hughes and Menh Saroeurn. After developing the Khmer workbooks, Open Institute was selected by UNESCO to develop the Math TLMPs for grades 1 and 2, and later for grade 3, and also to provide training on pedagogy to all primary teacher educators.
<br />In collaboration with the MoEYS Department of Information Technology, Open Institute installed the first LMS platform for MoEYS, training its staff on how to use it, helping develop some short courses. At the same time, as part of the GPE response to COVID-19, Open Institute worked with UNICEF and KAPE to gather, organize, and publish in the MoEYS LMS all the available materials for teaching all 12 grades of school, including over 6,000 videos.
<br />While centering its efforts on pedagogy, Open Institute has continued the ICT activities that support pedagogy and teacher training, developing only strategic computer applications for MoEYS that open new opportunities, and continuing its work to develop e-learning, with a focus on blended learning. The applications that it is still maintaining include an app to allow teachers to access all EG training materials through their phones, as well as developing a redirection platform that provides resilience and flexibility to the use of QR Codes in training materials.
<br />During 2023 and 2024, Open Institute has been preparing a pre-service course for contract teachers. For this course, it has reviewed how EG teachers are trained, finding new ways in which they can learn to teach EG Khmer and Maths without having to be specifically trained for each grade. It has also done research on the composition of the primary training force (normal teachers, contract teachers, double shift teachers, etc.) and on the educational results that each one of these produces after receiving mentoring.