While conducting online teacher training using Google Classroom and Zoom, it became clear that many teachers across Africa lacked access to laptops and desktop computers. They were doing all of their digital skills learning on smartphones and the training I was delivering didn't match the devices in their hands. I needed to redesign my courses so that what I was demonstrating looked very similar to what teachers would be using in their classrooms and homes.
That redesign became Novus Academy. It is built on a simple principle: meet teachers on the devices they already use every day, not on the ones training programmes assume they have.
The urgency is growing. AI is rapidly reshaping what it means to teach and learn, and teachers cannot responsibly guide their students through this shift if they have not used the tools themselves. They need hands-on experience with digital platforms before they can recognise the limitations of AI, evaluate its classroom use, and prepare their students for a future shaped by it. A teacher who has never sent a professional email, collaborated in a shared document, or safely navigated an app store is not positioned to teach the next generation how to thrive in an AI-driven world.
Novus Academy closes that gap, starting with foundational digital literacy, delivered through WhatsApp, on the devices teachers already own and the networks they already use.
Novus Academy's free four-week WhatsApp course runs in cohorts capped at six small groups of twenty teachers, with a facilitator in each group to keep conversations active and support peers through the material.
Each week follows the same rhythm. On Monday, teachers receive a short, low-bandwidth lesson video introducing the week's digital skill. On Wednesday, they are given a practical challenge to try out. On Thursday, an app demonstration shows the skill in use. On Friday, small groups meet in their WhatsApp group for a guided discussion, where teachers share the results of their challenge, reflect on what worked, and offer feedback to peers.
Teachers are encouraged throughout the week to try the challenge, experiment with the app, and post their screenshots, voice notes, or written reflections in their small group. This builds a culture of peer learning, where teachers see one another applying the skill in real classrooms and contexts.
A course workbook covering all four weeks is delivered as a PDF through the WhatsApp announcements channel, so teachers can follow along, take notes, and return to the material at their own pace.
Teachers who complete at least three of the four weekly challenges and post their results during the Friday discussions earn a certificate of completion. The certificate recognises active participation and applied practice, not just attendance, teachers finish the course having used the skills, not only learned about them.
The current WhatsApp cohort is the first to run in this format, but it builds directly on a prior course delivered through Canvas to roughly 300 Nigerian teachers. That earlier cohort told us something important: teachers found the content meaningful, but they struggled to connect to the Canvas platform, navigate it on their devices, and access the material reliably. Most critically, they were learning about digital tools on a laptop interface while creating their actual teaching materials on a phone. The skills were not transferring into classroom practice.
That feedback prompted the redesign into a WhatsApp-native course, meeting teachers on the platform they already use every day and demonstrating skills on the devices they actually teach with.
The current cohort of 123 teachers was recruited through existing WhatsApp and Telegram channels serving Nigerian teachers, school administrators, and school owners. Teachers joined from across Nigeria, reflecting the reach of peer networks rather than any single institutional pathway.
The spread model is designed to grow organically through its own graduates. Teachers who complete the current cohort and demonstrate strong participation will be invited to serve as facilitators in the next cohort, seeding peer leadership and distributing the facilitation load across a growing community of practice. This graduate-to-facilitator pathway is what will allow the course to scale without losing the small-group intimacy that makes it work.
Novus Academy welcomes partners and replicators who want to bring WhatsApp-based teacher training to their own communities, regions, or networks.
The next cohort begins May 4th, and organisations are welcome to observe it in action. Sitting inside a live cohort is the fastest way to understand how the weekly rhythm, small-group facilitation, and peer feedback loops actually work on the ground, the design choices are easier to grasp from the inside than from a description.
For organisations considering replication, we can share the course structure, the weekly content pattern, the facilitator model, the workbook design, and the lessons learned from moving teachers off a traditional LMS onto a mobile-native platform. We can also talk through what does not travel easily, the cultural adaptations, the recruitment channels, and the peer dynamics that take time to build in a new context.
To start a conversation about partnership, replication, or observing a live cohort, please reach out directly to Cynthia Tysick, Founder of Novus Academy, at librenovusconsulting@gmail.com.
Individual teachers interested in joining an upcoming cohort can register through the "Register" channel in the Novus Academy WhatsApp Community, where they will be placed into a small group for the next intake.
