2003 Testimonials - Course 8E: Introduction to Human Rights Education

What participants said about this course:

"[This course met my expectations] very well. It extended my knowledge on human rights and human rights education."

"The course met my expectations."

"[The course] was definitively more interesting that I ever thought. What I learned has no price in order of the experience. The materials were great and still are an incredible library."

"The course fulfilled my expectations entirely!"

"Very well. It met 95% of my expectation."

"[The course met my expectations] very well. As an introductory course, it covered a wide range of topics and provided a strong foundation for more in-depth study and practical work."

"I expected the course to be more challenging over all. It was a good experience though, I need to be more clear on my level of knowledge next time around and ensure that the course is appropriate that way."

"The course extended my expectations. HRE is an area that I had not had exposure to in a more detailed way. This course, helped me to attain a deeper understanding of human rights instruments, especially those that apply to my area of work. I feel that I actually experienced some kind of profound emotional transformation as some of the issues that came up had a direct link to my own personal experiences I had growing up in my community."

"The course met, and even exceeded, my overall expectations. The breadth of material was valuable, as was the unique knowledge of the co-instructors. They proved to be a great asset to my experience, and helped build upon the diverse and insightful contributions of other class participants, as well as the great set of selected readings."

"The course was rich and fulfilled my learning objectives very well."

"My expectations were mainly getting a deeper and organised insight of HRE and having access to quality material on internet, and these expectations were fulfilled."

"This was my first online course, and I was pleased with the potential and disappointed to realize it required more time than I had."

"I did not know what to expect and had never taken an on-line course. The beauty of such a course is that students can participate from around the world-this is a true privilege. Sometimes I longed for a "face-to-face" seminar, so my next endeavors in HRE may be in short seminar formats."

"The topics were incredibly well chosen in order to fill all the participants needs, and we are a very diverse and multidisciplinary group."

"The curriculum is adequate for an introductory course in Human Rights Education."

"The curriculum provided a good grounding in the moat important areas of HRE. The subject matter gave an overview of the various relevant intruments necessary for the learning of HRE concerning women, children, minorities and those relevant to everyone."

"The curriculum has suited my needs. I am quite impressed with the volume of topics we could cover within this limited time."

"The curriculum for the course is well designed especially given the short period of time available."

"The curriculum for the course is well designed especially given the short period of time available."

"The readings covered the topics adequately."

"The readings were very appropriated and a great source of material. For sure I'll read again a lot of them and use them in the future for personal and professional objectives."

"I found the readings quite useful in enhancing my understanding of the subject matter and in helping me clarify specific areas of topics in discussion for that week."

"I found the materials very interesting, although the sources were not always as diverse as I thought they would be. The level for the course was a bit 'beginner' for me until about 3/4s of the way through the course."

"I find exchanging information and experiences with those from other cultures to be very important."

"It has been a great learning experience for me. The course helps me to know so many friends from many different countries."

"Contributing to the weekly discussion questions helped me to focus on the various topics and encouraged reading of recommended material."

"On the discussion held on the Discussion Board, I have found many moments of friendship, and many interesting ideas; This was my first experience and I like the form, experience and the emotions that we have put all together in these discussion."

"I found the weekly discussion questions very interesting. They were thought provoking and stimulating and on occassions evoked some emotive responses from participants depending on the issues they were passionate about. It was also a good way to share our different experiences. I learnt quite a lot from contributions from other participants. Although sometimes the debates were dominated by a handful of participants, I feel that this was not necessarily a negative thing but reflected the different levels of experience within the group, so sometimes when I couldnt contribute, I was happy to just learn from others."

"This dynamic was very important because it make us as participants get to know each other better and also showed us the complexity and diversity of the group, that is the world reality."

"Although some time I feel more illustrations and examples are required, I admit that this has been accommodated through discussion on the Discussion Board."

"I have learnt a lot from others through this way and I enjoyed reading all the input from other colleagues."

"The Discussion Board is one of the most interesting parts of the course which I really enjoyed myself. The discussion has opened so many windows where you can have different vision of the world in term of social and cultural backgrounds. This has enriched the way of thinking, as well as the design of the final project to meet the needs of the local environment ha you are working in. "

"The course met well my course in the sense that I was able to gain insights from the readings, exercises and feedbacks and messages. All of these have contributed to my understanding of the human rights framework and its relations to women's issues. It has also provided me with possible activities and strategies that would be helpful in promoting training and education."

"The pace was sometimes beyond my capacity, but not because it was unreasonable-it just coincided with other deadlines, trips, etc. Thus, I was not able to put into the assignments all that I had hoped to. But, I have the notebook, materials, and a much better sense of key human rights documents, important trends in human rights education, and where to go to find what I need when developing lectures, questions, reading assignments, etc."

"It will help me to emphasize the importance of participatory learning in our work. I think we have believed that having a "participatory exercise", whereby participants are involved in doing something rather than sitting and listening to a lecture, accomplished the participatory process needed for learning. This course has illuminated the difference between "participatory learning" and a "participatory exercise".

"[The assignments] made me think and enhance my analytical skills and putting it into practice, it made me realize that I can do some things and cannot do some things."

"To interpret one's own thoughts in writing is very different from talking. This can be true especially to those whose mother tongue is not English."

"The exercises made me get more involved into the topics. They for sure took a lot of time but it was a time of building and growing."

"The exercises and other written assignments encouraged reading with a purpose."

"I really liked reading the answers of the course participants [on the Discussion Board] and learned a lot from them and hope to communicate with some of them to learn more. All their answers were worth reading because it presented a bigger picture of the world situation and thus enhanced my knowledge of things. It also gave me a glimpse of their personalities and how they would handle situations."

"Reading the contributions of other course participants, has helped to create an impression of countries and individuals we may never see or meet personally."

"The interchange of ideas and experiences was really of extraordinary importance and richness."

"The cultural issue was impressive because of the so many different approaches thet each one of us had, so it was very interesting and it took a lot of time also but it was very interesting."

"The weekly questions facilitated the participants to engage in deeper thoughts, generated ideas and assisted understanding of the content. It was very helpful, particularly as it put in place an open space for learning by sharing."

"It was absolutely delightful to read the other participants!"

"The course discussion inspired me to replicate some of model project in the present context of Nepal."

"It was a thrill to be in a dialogue happening around the world."

"Stimulated the thoughts and helped to reflect on the diverse experiences."

"I was appreciative of the many different countries and kind of practitioners represented in the group. I will miss the class."

"In some moment, in the course of this training course I have found the information and the answer of many question that I have not found them in any other place, for example: What are the reasons that US has not ratifed the Convention on the Rights of the Child, etc."

"This course has opened my eyes; I want to be more strategic in planning the movement for human rights, in planning the strategy for future education in human rights."

"Excellent reading materials, thanks for thoughtful design of the readings."

"I am thankful and appreciative of the way the facilitators handled the group, their words were encouraging and their patience was a thing to be admired and emulated. I have learned a lot in the way they summarized the main points of discussions and will try to duplicate such thing in my own setting."

"The feedback I received from both [facilitators] was very insightful, supportive, and encouraging. I cannot thank them enough for taking the time to comment extensively on the work I submitted-it reaffirmed my interest in developing university-level curricula on human rights and I expect to work up several different classes in the coming years. I have also integrated "women's rights as human rights" themes in my course on globalization and I will now add that dimension to my honors level Introduction to Women's Studies, in large part because I realize how important this is."

"The instructors were wonderful."

"Both the instructors were very good. Material was presented in a logical and easy to understand manner. Explanations were very clear and to the point. They gave other view points which helped me to think more and look at things differently."

"The instructors displayed a high level of facilitating skills. They were patient, understanding and accommodating of participants."

"I am very much impressed by the methods and techniques of teaching. They were so friendly and understanding. They see things from different perspectives and appreciate each of participant's contributions."

"There are so many great things to say about the facilitators. They were always very kind explaining and attending our difficulties and questions. Ive been in many courses but for sure I think we as a group will remember this because of the warm and kind posture of our facilitators."

"For me, this course was my first experience in e-distance learning, and for me it was so fruitful with idea, not only in the aspect of the topics and subjects, but also about the way that everything was organized (was facilitated/managed). So, as my first experience, I have a lot of compliments to make to you."

"Thank you for this opportunity to learn from your rich experience in HRE."

"I got a lot of good ideas, good material and documents, good homepages and urls and hope to use all that in the near future."

"The course was very beneficial for me in terms of content and methodology. The discussion questions were eye openers and invited critical thinking about human rights concepts and issues. The role of the instructors was supportive and inspiring, I never felt patronized."

"The written assignments helped to practice the lessons learned and was useful to understand the contents."

"[technical support] was very good about following up on questions and posting materials immediately. Thank you!"

"Very good. [Technical support] was very prompt in responding to my queries. I made him work quite hard due to my own limited IT skills, but he was good and knew exactly what help I needed. That helped to keep my confidence up."

"The answers [from technical support] were prompt and very helpful."

"Technical support was excellent."

"The software used for the course is just excellent."

"The technical support was very impressive and motivated us to continue working and responding each week."

"Thank you so much for a rewarding semester. It has been a unique experience and I often feel like I could seek out a more activist role if the university does not provide an environment where I feel I am actually being useful. This course has also provided a bridge between my academic work and the peace activism I am involved with. It has been empowering to make these connections and a pleasure to get to know the participants and instructors. Thank you."

"In addition to the methods, techniques, strategies of teaching human rights education, the course help me to know human rights concepts, standards, principles, elements, etc. I had difficulties in understanding these issues before and preparing teaching material for human right education. It helps me to widen my view."

"My participation in this course has a positive effect on my own work and that of my organization. I am now empowered and I have begun sharing the information received in this course with my organization through the use of a weekly Bulletin to all member organizations. I anticipate that my final project for this course when completed willgreatly enhance work of my organization."

"I want to thank you a lot for the opportunity that you have given to me by attending this course. As I mention before, it was my first experience in e-distance learning course, and for the moment I see it as the most fruitful education (for 3 months period) that I have attend till now."

"I think the course is perfect. We are also doing similar types of course, which is 8 weeks for South Asian participants and a 15-day intensive course in Kathmandu. It is very difficult to follow and get response from them. However, I saw in this course almost all the participants were actively involved in the end of the course."

"[The course] has helped me to have a comprehensive understanding on human rights education, especially on the topics of women's rights and children's rights. I have benefited a lot from the course."

"Certainly, the course will be an asset for my organization and myself too. The course has cleared my vision. We are thinking to choose of the course materials from the courseware provided by you."

"Well, this course helps he to understand the role of human rights educator. It's implementation strategies. I was confused about the role of the education and human rights education. The course gave me enormous ideas linking up human rights education in other disciplines."

"I want to thank again for this first chance given to me and hoping that this will be not the last one."

"Lot of thanks to the facilitators!!"

"In terms of covering human rights concepts, standards and instruments, the course was an excellent revision and extension of what I knew."

"It has a great impact in my work, as I directly work in this area. I have started to apply the lessons of the course in my project. Further, in 2004 annual work plan, I am including the activities planned in the final project."

"I anticipate that I will utilize my final project during the next academic year (2004-05). Thus I plan to immediately implement this material/proposal into at least one of the university classes I teach. In addition, the course has provided several useful avenues of exploration for further research and reading on my part related to human rights issues."

"I am working on implementing the project I proposed based on the feedback I received from my peers and that of the instructors."

"I mainly use the course in developing human rights teaching projects and preparing teaching materials. As the matter of fact I need to read more and revise your course material to put it into practice. I can assure you that it would help me in the future for different activities in relation to human rights: for me and for my organization."

"Thanks to all of you who were/are involved in this endeavor. It is important and useful work, and I appreciate the opportunity to participate."

"We are hoping to introduce HRE in the next phase of our capacity building work. This should happen towards the end of next year. Hopefully I would have done a few more HRE courses to increase my knowledge of HRE."

"I have communicated HREA to several friends and befriended institutions."

"Now I'm ready to be a student again and take an MA in Human Rights Studies!"

"It has a wonderful learning experience. Very special thanks to [facilitators and technical support] for your kind patience and all the support."

"A big thank you for the team, [facilitators and technical support], also for the patience and understanding during my hard times."

"Thanks for all! You are all great as individuals and as a team! Thanks for giving me the chance of been part of these experience!"

"Thank you for this opportunity to learn from your rich experience in HRE!"

"The course could not have been better!"