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Department of Distance Education Organizes Tutor Training Workshop

The Department of Distance Education, School of Continuing and Distance Education (SCDE) has organized a three-day tutor training workshop for tutors and lecturers from the various University of Ghana Learning Centres. The workshop was to equip participants with the skills essential to the successful implementation of the eLearning Programme.

Participants were taken through interactive presentations on issues relating to distance education, the state of the distance education programme as offered by the SCDE, Tutoring and Facilitation Skills, Tutorial Monitoring and Evaluation. Participants also discussed the gains and challenges of the Distance Education programme in the University of Ghana.  Addressing participants, the Dean of SCDE, Professor Yaw Oheneba Sakyi, noted that that with the introduction of Sakai, an eLearning platform, teaching and learning will be enhanced, and it was expected that there would be a gradual move away from paper-based teaching materials. Incoming Distance Education students will be given internet enabled android tablets pre-loaded with the teaching and learning materials needed by each student. As a pilot, 3000 tablets for incoming level 100 students have been acquired. 

The Dean emphasized the importance  of an educational model that utilizes the numerous advantages of ICT and stressed that the limitations of traditional learning naturally calls for a flexible learning system that both saves time and offers real-time opportunities in terms of easy accessibility. He highlighted a number of eLearning projects by institutions around the world and the possibilities offered by these projects to students and non-students alike.  According to him, the adoption of a mobile learning model (and in particular the SAKAI model) reinforces the University of Ghana’s vision of becoming a world class research university within the next decade.

Participants offered suggestions on the creation of an effective eLearning programme that specifically caters to a Ghanaian audience. 

Dr. Sam Somuah, the Project Director of the Chinese Phase II project noted that the project seeks to make e-learning a vital part of the distance education programme. He reminded attendees about the upcoming launch of the Mobile Learning Programme at the Accra City Campus of the University of Ghana.

 

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