1. Research and Development
As Associate Professor in the Centre, my main aim is to leave a mark on research and development activities of CILL. I am currently working on the CRIG Project with Uptoten Ltd (previous blog post) to be funded by the MRC, and another similar one with the State Informatics Limited.There is already an ongoing research project that is looking into the elements affecting students’ performances in online courses (previous blog post). I am setting up a living lab for teaching and learning at the CILL and the project is ongoing and it has made quite some progress. The project involves a bunch of our students too. Hopefully next year CILL will aim to become a member of ENOLL and the Living Lab project will get into another phase of its activity.
The work I engaged myself in 4-5 years ago in rapid elearning is into a later stage of activity where we have already started capacity-building activities on a regional scale to disseminate the technique. A project has been submitted to AAUN for funding the development of courseware in the context of a post-graduate certificate in teaching and learning.
2. Teaching and Learning
The first achievement is that the Diploma in Management and its top-up component has been migrated online (to the elearning platform). We are still in the process of refining the presentation of the content. This course is currently offered on DE mode with face-to-face components every Saturday on a full day basis. The modality will be reviewed for more flexibility in the programme. A University-wide e-learning policy has been worked out by the academic team and submitted to management back somewhere around April 2014. It will aim at transforming the teaching and learning landscape at the University. Administrative processes related to the management of the teaching and learning component of commissioned courses (re: Certificate in Police Duties) have been improved and done with more rigor to ensure adherence to University standards. CILL Quality Assurance Team has been recently set up to look into all quality issues and general issues related to teaching and learning and delivery of programmes at CILL. We are working with the Commonwealth of Learning to deliver two programmes of studies namely the Quality Assurance in Higher Education and the Education Leadership Masters. An MOU has been drafted and will hopefully be implemented soon. We have reviewed the structure of our MSc in Educational Technologies to make it in line with recent developments in the field and in line with our forthcoming collaboration with GESCI for the African Leadership in ICT. The programme structure has been reworked in such a way that it will be conducive to reach out to foreign students who can follow the course while being in their home country, and at the same time we have taken steps to ensure quality will be maintained. Similarly the three new programmes are being worked out that will help the University in its strategic directions 2 and 3 with a particular emphasis on internationalization.
The three programmes are as follows:
- Postgraduate Certificate in Rapid e-Learning Methodologies (Support of COL)
- Postgraduate Diploma in Quality Assurance in Higher Education (Collaboration with COL)
- Masters in Education Leadership (collaboration with COL)
CILL has maintained the VCILT’s tradition to be a highly efficient unit when it comes to supporting the University’s activities in general. CILL technical staff (web multimedia developers, visual communication designer and research assistant) has been providing unflinching support to the following activities:
- Assisting the CITS in the redesign of the UoM website
- Newsletter design and artwork as well as brochures
- Mounting of the UoM Strategic Plan 2015-2020
- Assisting in Court meeting PowerPoint Presentation
- Technical support for the Use of Moodle e-Learning Platform
- Working on the UoM 3D modeling project, to improve visibility of UoM on Google Maps and to improve student experience on campus (Strategic Direction 4)
- Conducting workshops for educators on the use of 21st Century teaching and learning skills (Strategic Direction 5 on Community engagement)
- Annual research week website and abstract handling system
4. Challenges of Leadership and Management
- Moving all staff to the CORE without major complaint and resistance, occupying classrooms as offices, to work in difficult situations with no running water, intermittent Internet connection and with no access to UoM intranet services (MIS/SIS etc), and difficulty of transport for dispatch, and no fax.
- Handling two different generation of work cultures (CPDL and VCILT), different aspirations and multiple grades of staff in one Centre (Academics, IDs, Web Developers and Administrative Staff). This is a unique situation at the University.
