From time immemorial, constant innovative approaches have always been adopted by teachers in the western world, traditional approaches to teaching and assessments in Nigeria tertiary institutions have constantly been practiced as well during this period.
In a knowledge-based economy, universities are an instrument for change and growth of the nation. Needless to mention, the globe is advancing technologically and in different climes, one amongst growing sectors is e-learning, to some, it’s going to be commendable that the Nigerian Government is attempting to assist the Digital economy.
The last five months witnessed a global pandemic leading to some structural modifications in the educational, economic, social, and religious lives of many people.
As a result of this pandemic crisis, almost all higher institutions in Nigeria have introduced one form of e-learning or the other, although the issue is that most of them are still highly unregulated with lecturers left to sort for ways to fix and hold lectures with the students.
The school includes Mountain Top University of the MFM, Landmark University, First Technical University, Ibadan, Federal polytechnic Ilaro, National Open University (NOUN), Caleb University, BOWEN, ABUAD, Elizade University, Obafemi Awolowo, Babcock University, Anchor University, Lagos, Hallmark University, Nile University, Rivers state university of science and tech, Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin, and Yabatech.
The following schools have been engaging their students via various platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram, while Zoom and Google Classroom is the major platforms employed.
Yes, Nigerian education desires technology however we might not simply rush the magic and become e-learning inclined in fortnight owing to Covid-19, we are going to want a system that works and that we don’t have that yet, at least not enough to use e-learning for grading students. Some universities cannot boast of a well-functioning portal nor a decent networking system for college students.
Virtual learning is incredibly commendable and it’s the most effective way to unfold education to the less privilege, it’s a shame that despite our wealthy resource, some faculties don’t apprehend what digital learning is, they still use obsolete tools and a few lecturers cannot efficiently operate laptops, email or even Interactive boards, the truth remains that we must face the reality and not put students in a dilemma.
The government should consciously unleash cash for such facilities to be placed on the ground, in numerous institutions presently, academic staff use yahoo, Gmail et al., in fact at a specific time of the day, you can’t even access your mail. It’s a significant matter. In some instances, you’d see students, about twenty of them clump in one place as a result of the said signal there’s higher, the government should be able to fund education, there’s no alternative!
The reality is that presently, there’s no Nigerian university that has the requisite infrastructure to quickly switch to on-line teaching. The typical Nigerian university is structured to teach on the traditional platform and distance learning isn’t as developed as we might have cherished.
We can boast of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), or the distance learning institute at University of Ibadan or its counterpart at UNILAG but unlike South Africa’s UNITA, which is very efficient, we haven’t got to that level here because of the infrastructure required-online facilities, human resource that’s, the technical people who can handle it then the trained lecturers which will operate that platform. So, to the extent that we tend to don’t have such structures, the physical and also the pedagogic on the ground, it becomes problematic, we cannot switch overnight.”
For any university that desires to modify to virtual learning, except for the physical structure having a central location, where those things will be coordinated on their campuses, we conjointly have to be compelled to make sure that the scholars at the other end have power supply and a portable computer to connect with their institutions. It’s quite pathetic that our system is structured in such a way that on-line teaching isn’t integral to our system of learning and instruction in Nigeria, it’s not progressing to be possible within the short run but it may be something to require far from this pandemic.
“Over the subsequent 3 to 6 months, we can assemble specialists from completely different sectors and deliberate on what we can do should this type of pandemic recall. What infrastructures should be in situ, what quantity should it value, how can we train the technical individuals, our lecturers who would handle the teaching, how then can we train our students to key into the entire Those are the items we’d like to think about and all stakeholders should be concerned.
If we’d like to attain this and make it come into reality, then we’d like to look into the following queries. A regular power supply is a major requirement for the undefeated operation of e-learning platforms. How are we getting to a stable power supply throughout the day?
You would know how very much like an individual you pay on the internet monthly, where will the students get the money? Lecturers also may have to be trained in using digital tools. How shortly can this be set up?
Taking everything into consideration, I believed the online teaching is here to stay and can only get better with proper equipment to make the interaction between the students and facilitators more visual-oriented! Not many students have a laptop to do teleconference teaching! Many are barely on megabyte data to surf the internet.
A lot of students will not be able to participate due to a lack of suitable gadgets and also due to the high cost of data in the country. But yes, e-learning may have come to stay.
Okediran Adeyemi is a content writer at The Young Leaders Council
