The National Council for Higher Education (NCHE), a body mandated to regulate the provision and conduct of Higher Education in Uganda, is desirous of implementing an emergency Open, Distance e-Learning (ODeL) system for enabling the Higher Education training institutions to offer teaching and learning during the current lockdown. The system is globally recognized as a worthy mechanism for flexible learning because it avails numerous benefits as a teaching and learning system by focusing on learners, and provides for continuous engagements between the instructor and learners as and when is desirable.
Kabale University decided to conduct an eLearning training for all its Academic and Technical staff in fulfillment of part of the guidelines from NCHE for purposes of applying for the accreditation prior to embarking on the ODeL system to enable the University resume their teaching and learning activities remotely, since students and lecturers can be able to interact without necessarily coming into contact, during the lockdown.
The workshop cumulatively ran for 10 days, all dedicated to face to face activities. In consideration of the COVID-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs), the training was done in different sessions whereby each session comprised of two 2 faculties/Schools/Institutes that were trained for two (2) days of training. A total of 347 participants took part in the training workshop. It was supported by two (2) teams (Team A – Pedagogy Team and Team B, the Technical Team).
The training workshop explored the use of the Learning Management System (LMS) in teaching and learning. The participants went through an Orientation to eLearning course to familiarize them with the online learning environment. It also focused on application of instructional theory and design for online learning in content development. In addition, it also explored the approaches to online teaching and how to respond to the technical support needs for eLearning in various contexts. At the end of each training, participants engaged in a discussion to build a consolidated approach to eLearning for capacity development for the University. The way forward and strategy of the workshop was shared as presented in the next sections.
The workshop was an opportunity for participants to reflect on the eLearning needs for Kabale University which could lead to the mobilization of resources for capacity building and growth of expertise to initiate the eLearning unit at KAB.
