Background
National Council for Higher Education (NCHE), the Regulatory Agency of Higher Education Training in Uganda, plans to host its 4th Higher Education Conference on 14th September 2022 and 15th September 2022. It will be a blended event with a physical venue at Hotel Africana where participation and livestreaming of key events and discussions will be captured. The virtual component will be via a zoom webinar and NCHE social media streaming platforms to reach out to a wide scope of viewership.
The theme for the conference is “Enhancement of teaching, learning and assessment with ODEL in Higher Education’’
Why this theme?
Open and Distance e-Learning (ODeL) has become the mode of education delivery worldwide aimed at bridging the time, geographical, economic, social, and educational and communication distance between learners and institutions. It is a Learner-centered delivery approach where integrity and freedom of an individual is primary. Open and Distance e-Learning encompasses not only teaching but also learning and highlights the teacher’s role rather than the system. Therefore, the teaching, learning and assessment processes must provide flexible sequences of study, negotiated objectives, content, learning methods, negotiated methods of assessment and a choice of support mechanisms.
Since the inception of ODEL in 2020 by NCHE, a few institutions have been ODEL certified. The monitoring and support teams revealed critical challenges of competences beyond the supportive ICT infrastructure that have limited the optimal use of ODEL in institutions. The current obstacles include; Online assessment, competences of lecturers in developing teaching items, packaging of content, pedagogical approach for content delivery, lecturers and students mind set on online learning, failure to appreciate ODeL by institutional stake holders among others.
Unlike key ICT infrastructure, skills upgrade and development are critical to develop ODeL systems. Therefore, several ODeL experiences, practices and lessons learnt during Covid-19 pandemic could be adopted, nurtured and enhanced by institutions depending on their resources and context levels.
Areas of focus
Thus, the annual higher education conference, 2022 has been organized by NCHE so that the above issues could be discussed and the areas of focus shall be;
- Reshaping ideas and practices in Teachers’ Role in eLearning Process.
- Experiences and lessons for learners and teachers in e-learning
- Content development and pedagogical skills under the new norm
- Development of online research networks and resources for Higher Education
- Higher education online delivery, learning and assessment
- ICT Skills Development
- Policy & Directions
Participants
The conference will be a two-day activity where both Universities and Other Tertiary Institutions will participate on both days without separating them. The Conference shall adopt an approach of plenary presentation by key note speakers of subject matter regarding ODeL mode of delivery and discussion panel.
The participants in the conference include but not limited to; the Higher Education management, lecturers, learners, regulators, policy makers, stakeholders aligned to Higher education, and service providers.
