Jos Visit – May/June 2010
The University of Jos has embarked on transforming its teaching, learning and research culture through provision of an appropriate ICT environment. To stimulate this transformation, different strategies are being pursued. Particularly, the University intends to mentor selected departments (Law, Computer Science, History, and Arts) through training and provision of an enabling environment to transform the teaching and learning experiences of the various courses taught in the departments through the use of technology and specifically using the University LMS.
The rationale for pursuing this strategy of a Departmental Educational Technology Initiative is to demonstrate, using the participating departments that technology has the potential to:
• Increase the quality of teaching and improve the success rate of students;
• Make teaching and learning more exciting and enriching for staff and students;
• Create an environment for free and open sharing of information and knowledge;
• Produce graduates who are capable of functioning in a 21st century information society;
• Mitigate the challenges of loss of staff-student contact as a result of large classes and the inconsistency in quality and quantity of feedback from learners.
The visit got off to a good start with the entire local project team (Professors Sunday Adewumi and Julie Mafwil, Jerome Dooga, Joel Gogwim, and Dakas Dakas) taking the time to come and meet the South Africa team of Brenda, Monge and James at their hotel the day before the workshops were due to start at the University of Jos campus. General project intentions and strategy were discussed which provided the context for the visit. The high level of participation and enthusiasm displayed by the team drove the success of the visit, and was sustained throughout both the Technical and Online Course workshops which after a shared first day ran in parallel.
The local assisting facilitators for the Online Course workshop were Jerome Terpase Dooga (UniJos) and Obi Brown (consultant). The participants worked very hard in what were sometimes very difficult conditions, with academic staff keen to develop new skills, and for those with prior experience to share achievements in this area. The spirit which prevailed in the IT labs throughout the week was remarkable with no frustration or impatience displayed when the electricity failed - rather, the group made contingency plans by sharing personal laptops until the power was restored. Some additional academic staff from the Jos ICT in Mathematics Initiative who were not able to attend the Online Course workshop, have subsequently arranged access to the Moodle course and are working through the materials on their own.
The concurrency in running the Moodle Technical workshop (7 participants) with the Online Course workshop (+- 40 participants) worked very well for all concerned, as the academics’ needs could immediately be made known to the technical team, and vice versa. Both workshops used a hands-on approach. The technical group were encouraged to work together in troubleshooting the various activities identified as part of the training. This approach was very successful as the team was highly engaged and displayed eagerness in finding solutions to the various challenges they faced, and supported each other in completing their activities.
- Monge, Prof Sunday Adewumi, James and Brenda outside the UniJos ICT Directorate
- The Jos IT Technical team hard at work with James
- Academics hard at work in the lab - with electricity
- And making a plan without electricity
- Nancy King of the Dramatic Arts Department, UniJos, presenting her Online Course plan to the group at the final session of the Online Course workshop.