Like Kampala International University, Kyambogo University has resolved to start teaching online.
The acting university vice chancellor, Prof Eli Katunguka, last week reported that the university was ready following completion of relevant infrastructure. His revelation came during a training session for teaching staff on the usage of the e-learning course design last week.
Katunguka said e-learning would help compensate for scarcities of academic staff, including instructors or teachers as well as facilitators and lab technicians.
“The approach and vision outlined in our strategy is to develop online content and have some courses run totally online,” Katunguka said. “We want to move towards a 21st century learning experience, where we blend traditional methods with modern methods of teaching. Our teaching should be student-centered, not teacher-centered.”
He added that e-learning would permit each student to study at their pace, increasing satisfaction and reducing on stress. At the week-long African Development Bank (ADB) supported “e-Content Development” workshop, about 90 staff were hosted at the university’s school of Management and Entrepreneurship computer laboratory.
Katunguka said the staff would engage in transferring the skills to other colleagues from the university’s 37 departments. Andrew Moore, an IT specialist from South Africa also the chief facilitator, said e-learning is the way to go for Kyambogo, given its historical problems.
“Kyambogo has had a difficult past and found it had to find its unique identity. But through e-learning, the university can reinvent itself by getting the staff to speed up to heal these problems and compete with other higher education institutions,” Moore said.
Moore, also part of the brains behind Muni University’s e-learning policy, urged lecturers to be creative by using audio and video content and share as much information online while interacting with learners. He has also worked with Makerere University on various e-learning projects.
Kyambogo University has adopted ICT as an administrative tool and education management under its e-Kampus platform which focuses on providing education managers and administrators with accurate and timely data. Currently, admissions, registration, results, transcripts processing and fees payments are automated.
According to John Okuonzi, the university information systems manager, all trained staff will be tasked to develop content for at least two course units in their area of expertise and upload it in the e-platform known as the Kyambogo University e-Learning Management System (KELMS).
Similarly, the platform is also being piloted in the faculty of Vocational Studies to teach the master of Vocational Pedagogy (MVP) under the NORHED project. All trained staff shall later be given free mini-tablets basically suited for e-learning and memory sticks of about 8GB to aid their teaching.
“We have already put online a course in Bachelor of Education and hope to start facilitating online by August or January next year,” Okuonzi said, adding that the current minimum ICT infrastructure will make internet access possible across the university.
At least more than 3,000 to 4,000 students and 200 staff can access internet on daily basis. Okuonzi said the bandwidth has also been increased from 42 Megabits per second in 2014 to 76 in 2016 something that has seen 25 wireless spots created across the campus.
He said since e-learning is bandwidth hungry, more 42 Mbps will be added to the 76 to make it 108 Mbps in the next academic year – thanks to a $216,000 (about Shs 756m) ADB fund for the next three years.
From the latest $1.9m (about Shs 6.6bn) ADB ICT infrastructure development fund, three thin-client based computer laboratories equipped with at least 10 to 15 computers will be created in the faculties of Science, Engineering, and Special Needs Education to enhance e-learning.
“The procurement of these computers is done and starting next month, we have identified a service provider who is going to be doing that,” Okuonzi said.
He added that quite a number of working class students have already expressed interest to study online. For universities that have not yet embraced e-learning, Moore leaves a message to them.
“I think in the next five to 10 years, if your university is not transmitting content online, then you are in dangerous waters,” he said. “We are no longer gatekeepers to knowledge; the universities now have to be facilitators of learning.”
nangonzi@observer.ug