Culled from The Nation
Some 100 lecturers from seven universities are learning to prepare study materials and assess their students differently.
They are also learning to deploy the open and distance learning (ODL) technology to enable more students to assess university education.
Dr Kerry Murphy and other academics have flown in from the Open University, United Kingdom for the two-week workshop for the lecturers, who are from the University of Lagos, National Open University of Nigeria, University of Ibadan, Obafemi Awolowo University, Federal University of Technology, Yola, University of Maiduguri and the University of Abuja.
The effort to expand the carrying capacity of universities through the ODL mode is being spearheaded by the National Universities Commission (NUC) in collaboration with the British Council.
Mr Julius Momoh, whose firm, Schul Portals, is providing web portal services for the ODL platform, said once the infrastructure and expertise are on ground, the universities would be able to admit at least 50,000 more students each.
"The ODL is to arrest the problem of assess. It has been estimated that 1.5 million youths will take the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and the universities cannot accommodate more than 350,000. NUC wants to increase the number of dual mode universities - that offer both conventional education and distance learning education. The goal of the project is to increase capacity of universities to take at least 350,000 more students.
"Every university that passes the test after the workshop will be accredited by the NUC and international assessors so they can go ahead to increase enrolment capacity to 50,000 students."
Speaking on the content of the workshop, Dr Murphy, who is Director of Research at the Open University, UK, said the ODL platform requires harnessing technology and the internet to deliver quality tuition.
To this end, Murphy, who managed the Lagos centre of the workshop comprising lecturers from UNILAG and NOUN, said the academics were being taught how to write teaching materials for students who learn through technology.
He explained that the peculiarities of ODL requires that the materials be interesting and test the students'ability to think. He added that the reduction in the ages of students assessing university education through the ODL platform means that lecturers also have to appeal to the interest of younger readers to attract their attention.
"The teaching material has to be designed in a way to interact with the students. We are trying to get the students to think. The materials should be conversational, engaging and interesting. It is not about rote learning but should make the students think," he said.
Director of the Distance Learning Institute, UNILAG, Prof Funke Lawal said the expertise from the foreign dons would help Nigerian academics to improve their technical and writing skills.
They are also learning to deploy the open and distance learning (ODL) technology to enable more students to assess university education.
Dr Kerry Murphy and other academics have flown in from the Open University, United Kingdom for the two-week workshop for the lecturers, who are from the University of Lagos, National Open University of Nigeria, University of Ibadan, Obafemi Awolowo University, Federal University of Technology, Yola, University of Maiduguri and the University of Abuja.
The effort to expand the carrying capacity of universities through the ODL mode is being spearheaded by the National Universities Commission (NUC) in collaboration with the British Council.
Mr Julius Momoh, whose firm, Schul Portals, is providing web portal services for the ODL platform, said once the infrastructure and expertise are on ground, the universities would be able to admit at least 50,000 more students each.
"The ODL is to arrest the problem of assess. It has been estimated that 1.5 million youths will take the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and the universities cannot accommodate more than 350,000. NUC wants to increase the number of dual mode universities - that offer both conventional education and distance learning education. The goal of the project is to increase capacity of universities to take at least 350,000 more students.
"Every university that passes the test after the workshop will be accredited by the NUC and international assessors so they can go ahead to increase enrolment capacity to 50,000 students."
Speaking on the content of the workshop, Dr Murphy, who is Director of Research at the Open University, UK, said the ODL platform requires harnessing technology and the internet to deliver quality tuition.
To this end, Murphy, who managed the Lagos centre of the workshop comprising lecturers from UNILAG and NOUN, said the academics were being taught how to write teaching materials for students who learn through technology.
He explained that the peculiarities of ODL requires that the materials be interesting and test the students'ability to think. He added that the reduction in the ages of students assessing university education through the ODL platform means that lecturers also have to appeal to the interest of younger readers to attract their attention.
"The teaching material has to be designed in a way to interact with the students. We are trying to get the students to think. The materials should be conversational, engaging and interesting. It is not about rote learning but should make the students think," he said.
Director of the Distance Learning Institute, UNILAG, Prof Funke Lawal said the expertise from the foreign dons would help Nigerian academics to improve their technical and writing skills.
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