In collaobration with the North American Students of Cooperation (NASCO), we’re excited to announce that we have received a grant from the CHS Foundation through their 2014 Cooperative Education Grants Program to help us develop our online course program through our TESA Academy.
What does this mean for you? It means that we’re able to reduce the cost of our courses and offer them at an even lower, more affordable rate. Through the grant, we’re able to offer Intro to Cooperatives, Worker Co-ops 101, and Creating a Cooperative Food Economy for just $20-80 (sliding scale).
We’re collaborating with NASCO on this project because they’re also working on educating the next generation of cooperators—and we figured it’s better to work together, pool our resources, and get more bang for our efforts.
The CHS Foundation (www.chsinc.com/stewardship) is the major giving entity of CHS Inc. (NASDAQ: CHSCP), the nation’s leading farmer-owned cooperative and a global energy, grains and foods company. As a part of the CHS stewardship focus, the CHS Foundation is committed to investing in the future of rural America, agriculture and cooperative business through education and leadership development.
We are honored by their support and thrilled at what we’ll be able to accomplish in the world of cooperative education this next year, thanks to the CHS Foundation.
Co-op Education via Your Computer
What can you expect when you sign up for a TESA Academy course? That your needs, wants, and time constraints will be taken into account, along with your background and goals. We’re both democratic and pragmatic.
Our intro course will be short, just five hours long, while the other two courses will be about 10-15 hours in length. You can expect our teaching online to mirror what we do in the classroom—our methodology is based on popular and democratic education pedagogy and is highly participatory, student driven, and project based.
We’ll have video-based discussions, presentations, and group work. You’ll get to hear from and talk with guest speakers from the cooperative movement, and learn with your fellow course participants throughout.
The only difference from the classroom is that you don’t have to travel to get to the course. This is a great opportunity for both those of you with lots of co-op knowledge, and those with only a little. You can fit in wherever you are on that spectrum, and connect with others in the co-op movement.
What matters most is that we’ll shape the content and the projects in each course around your needs and goals, as well as those of your fellow participants. Co-op training that is specific to where you’re at—how could it get any better?
Just so you know, we do offer another course, Popular Education Methods and Practices, which is not covered by the grant. It’s still available at an affordable rate, and you should check it out if you want to learn how to put our teaching methodology into practice in your own work and life.
