Alexactus Kaure We are living in the age of the “E`s”. You have e-governance, e-mail, e-wallet and, of course, e-learning. These are some of the new innovations that are moving the world forward, and no institution would want to be left behind. You either join the horse-race or you lose out. The Namibian College of Open Learning (NAMCOL) being one of the key players in the country’s educational system has taken cognizance of these new developments and has embraced them.
To improve services to its customers NAMCOL has added eLearning to its programme offerings with the production of radio, video, web-based lessons. E-learning has been going on for some time now but it has now expending with the addition of the on-line CECD programme. This programme is now available on the NAMCOL E-Learning portal which is hosted on the Moodle Learning Management System (LMS) at www.namcoloer.edu.na.
The development of this exciting programme started in 2014 and is now ready for piloting. The pilot will start in March 2016 and end in June 2017 on completion of the CECD course. For the pilot phase 30 students were identified and selected based on their computer literacy skills, academic performance in grade 12 and eagerness to do the course on-line. Each of the pilot students received a NAMCOL-owned tablet, fully equipped to use it online.
For the pilot phase, seven tutors have been appointed who will be responsible for the on-line tutoring of the CECD on-line modules. The pilot kicked-off with the training of both tutors and students in the use of the tablets as well as how to access and navigate through the entire course on their tablets. Tutors also would focus on how to do on-line facilitation.
But why CECD on-line? “It is an addition to the print-base materials that the students are currently using. It’s add-on to the course”, meaning that students will get extra assistance compared to other student who are only focusing on print. “says Alexia Nakaziko, the Programme Developer for eLearning for Tertiary Programmes.
The aim is for CECD to be offered in a blended mode – both on-line and face-to-face interaction. The catch here is that only students who have registered for CECD will automatically have access to the on-line course. This pilot programme will run for a period of 18 months starting March 2016. It’s only after the conclusion of the pilot phase that others will be able to do the course.
Originally authored by Alexactus Kaure
