Adefemi: Ife example in learning beyond classroom

WITH the emergence of global knowledge-based economy, universities including those in developing countries like Nigeria are taking on another important role in the society. The traditional belief that universities should be left to generate knowledge through research and disseminate what is accumulated through teaching and publications does not suffice any more. The new challenge facing universities in the 21st century is how to transform the society by educating the masses. In the face of new opportunities of the Information Communication Technology (ICT), our universities are being challenged to constitute themselves into sites for lifelong learning, providing continuing education for former graduates, school teachers, civil servants, businessmen and women, and even artisans and farmers. In other words, universities should go beyond educating few elite if society is to be transformed.

Available statistics and data, in the case of Nigeria, make this challenge much more compelling than in the advanced countries. The admission profile of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) into Nigerian universities shows that generally, less than 20% of about two million prospective candidates secure admission annually and this is not unconnected with the annual carrying capacity of the entire Nigerian University system. Again, the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) which is a proportion of young people aged between 19 and 24 of a population of about 160 million who are in universities is only 7% as compared to South Africa’s 18%, Mauritus 11% and the minimum international standard of 16%.

The need for the diversification of the mode of delivery of lectures from the conventional full-time-teacher/textbook-classroom-centred and on campus teaching system toward a variety of part-time, short duration courses and more importantly leveraging on the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICI) to make education available to a broader student body is, therefore, imperative. Education should now be learning beyond the classrooms.

It was within these prevailing circumstances, that in August, 2002, Obafemi Awolowo University established her Centre for Distance Learning (CDL) in a serene environment conducive for learning few kilometres away from the centre of the university campus but within the university estate with a view to expanding the reach of education to learners anywhere, anytime they desire to acquire knowledge, skills and training. The Centre is also to develop and establish high-value and demand-driven degree and non-degree programmes with a view to building mutually beneficial linkages with industry. In other words, the aim of the Centre is to provide increased educational opportunities to those disadvantaged by limited time, distance, old age or physical disability.

To improve the quality of conventional education and reposition the university within the context of the growing global learning community, Obafemi Awolowo University, a foremost ICT University in Nigeria with a bandwidth of 650 Mbps decided to improve the facilities at her CDL by applying multi-media technology that support electronic instructional delivery mode – (e-Learning) as well as independent learning to all her Executive Masters, degree, diploma, and certificate programmes at the Centre.

Consequently, the foundation stone of her E-Learning Resource Centre and Administration Block constructed under public-private partnership initiative which was laid by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Bamitale Omole in June, 2012 was commissioned on March 14, 2014.

With the state-of-the-art facilities now in place following the commissioning of the E-Learning Resource Centre, the programmes of the Centre already in high demand will attract more students. Using the technologies, all lecture notes will be converted into electronic mode and compact disc (CD) and students will therefore have easy access to study online. The e-modules will indicate when a course begins and ends including dates for events such as for submission of assignments and face-to-face tutorial, sessions, conferences, chats and examinations. Social network facilities such as face book, twitter, netlogs for academic purposes will also be used to facilitate on-line delivery of lectures.

The lecture materials which will come in form of power-point slides will be captured on video and accompanied by hand-outs in PDF format and these will be used by the instructors for teaching. A digital library will be available on the portal for students’ and lecturers’ research. The model which makes it possible for course materials to be in a tablet will be given to each student at the beginning of a programme. The customized Tablet for the delivery of lectures on-line and off-line helps to overcome the twin problems of internet access and power supply. The Tablet is designed such that it can automatically connect to the Centre’s e-Learning portal to download lectures and update student’s status based on the level of classes attended, and assignment submitted. Connectivity will therefore not be a problem for a student as the Tablet which has a nine-hour capacity comes with its own network for which the subscription will be renewed at every session’s registration. The problem of power outages will therefore be very minimal.

The classes are designed in such a way that the bandwidth needed is not too large and will not take too much time to be downloaded into computers and other devices. Lecture notes and assignments downloaded can be viewed off-line at student’s own time and assignment submitted as requested by Instructors. There will be quizzes to test the level of understanding of subject taught and all these will automatically be stored in the system. Digitizing the course content will also make it easy for the Centre to carry out curricular reviews and an update of academic content at regular intervals. The other delivery platforms will be text, broadcast, and correspondence based, supported by print materials and face-to-face instructional delivery mode of courses that require residential school during long holidays for industrial training, laboratory attendance, tutorials, practicals and examinations.

As part of its preparation, the Centre has played host to three E-learning experts from Open University of United Kingdom which was facilitated by the British Council and NUC. The Centre has also had in residence at different periods of one year and six months, two visiting Professors of Distance Education from the United States. Also a total of 12 Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) staff have been sponsored by the Centre in NUC facilitated train-the-trainers workshops in Abuja and Lagos and have been certified by NUC as Distance Learning Trainers. They are guided by NUC’s policies within the framework of the University’s general regulations governing admission. The total time to complete an on-line course is equivalent to that of on-campus programme. Consequently, degrees, diplomas and certificates awarded are the same for both categories of students.

The e-Learning Centre also makes learning cost-effective because since a student studies in the comfort of his/her home, costs of transportation and housing are eliminated. In addition, the cost of study materials such as hand-outs, photocopying are eliminated. All course materials are on the Tablet. While the e-learning programme does not expose a student to negative influences such as cultism, prolonged and unnecessary delay on a programme, it exposes a student to a wider base of knowledge and experiences through research because the E-conference tools allow a student to connect with his/her lecturers as well as other students.

For effective monitoring and co-ordination of the programme, E-learning Resource Centres will be in Abuja, Lagos, and Port Harcourt and each of them will be equipped with Local Area Networks (LAW), a two-way VSAT equipment, at least 500-computer workstations, internet and digital library access as well as equipment for live viewing, playback, audio and video conferencing, full interactive services and virtual classrooms. Each Resource Centre will also have a large classroom of a sitting capacity of 200 students.

With these facilities, OAU continues to engrave her name in the psyche of global reckoning as a Centre of Academic Excellence having retained number (1) one position and the best University in Nigeria and in the entire West African Sub-region for four consecutive years in the Webometric ranking of world Universities as released by Cybermetric Lab of Spain – a world renowned Research Council. As the foremost leading ICT University in Nigeria, she is the trail-blazer in other ICT initiatives and innovations in the nation’s educational landscape.

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