Varsities urged to save costs via e-learning

By Fredrick  Obura

The call to share teaching materials within universities to save thousands missing out on training opportunities is on the rise.

The Government and education institutions now want universities to freely share their content to help build online education content to help in training.

Tens of thousands of Form Four leavers have been qualifying to join university every year, but unfortunately only a fraction is admitted to study in public universities by the Joint Admissions Board

The low absorption rate has been attributed to lack of manpower and teaching facilities in the universities that has seen many miss out training opportunities. At a recent Policy Harmonisation and Curriculum Conceptualisation workshop held in Nairobi, scholars agreed to use of Information and Communication Technology to beat the acute shortage that has threatened to deem hopes of many students.

“There are quite a number of universities reluctant to share their teaching materials. This is delaying development of online content for training purposes,” says Dr. Bakary Diallo, The African Virtual University Rectur. “The materials they are withholding have been built by public funds hence the need for sharing to help enrich online training materials to beat training deficit,” he said.

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Some of these people who miss the admissions in public universities opt to enroll for the private sponsorship degree programmes while others enroll in private universities. A few choose to go abroad for their university education. “It is however clear such options are for those with money, those without money clearly do not have a lot of options,” he noted.

“Use of ICT is a solution, distance learning enriched with quality content will see qualified candidates access higher education,” said Harry Kaane, Higher Education, Science and Technology Secretary.

The education Secretary noted that seamless sharing of materials will enable development of online content to be used in distance learning.

“Our free primary and Secondary Education has seen number of people graduating and seeking further education in tertiary institutions, it has led to an overstretch of the existing colleges,” he said.

“Open Education Resources will enable us to develop online contents that would easily help in teaching through the open distance method,” he said. He reiterated the need for universities to formulate strategies that promote the production of contents as Open Education Resources.

The Africa Virtual University has been championing use of ICT to supplement teaching.

AIt facilitates delivery of degree and certificate programs through e-learning, testing and proving that -e-learning presents an alternative to face-to face education in Africa.

Scholarly materials

“We have networks with major African Universities, this has helped us develop online content for over 200 books, this materials are now available online through our portal that would be accessed freely by students and teachers in our network and beyond,” he said in an interview.

“The aim is to network further and have more contents online, shared contents is important not only in churning out human resources for development our nations but also in speeding up integrations we are witnessing in the continent.”

In the first phase of its multinational project funded by the Africa Development Bank, the organization established network of open distance and e-learning in institutions in over 30 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Kenya included.

It is currently implementing a five-year $ 15 million e-learning project in 21 African countries. The project includes establishment and upgrading of Open Distance and e-learning Centres among participating Institutions; gender mainstreaming through awarding scholarships to female students; research and development;

It also includes technical assistance to countries and universities, enhancing the use of open educational resources; implementation of the teacher education, computer science and peace and conflict resolution programs as well as AVU Capacity Enhancement Program.

In a communique issued in Nairobi recently, Vice Chancellors from twenty-six African Universities were challenged to agree on a collaborative approach on AVU Multinational Project II across participating countries and universities.