GTUC improves online technology
The Ghana Technology University College (GTUC) has come out with a novelty which has further improved online teaching and learning, particularly for faculty members.
It is suitable for this period when tertiary institutions have been closed due to the COVID -19 pandemic.
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The novelty, christened Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT), which requires craft and guile of which very little time has been invested in planning, particularly suits institutions with low technology-enhanced learning (TEL) capabilities.
Such a new technology, which particularly guides lectures, is being carried through by GTUC’s Centre for Online Learning and Teaching (COLT), established in 2012.
The centre is currently working in partnership with other universities such as the University of Coventry in the United Kingdom, Anhalt University in Germany, Ramaiah University in India and Aalborg University in Denmark for carrying out improved teaching and learning programmes.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic in an exclusive interview at GTUC Koforidua Campus, the Vice-President of the GTUC, Professor Isaac Abeku Blankson, emphasised three main segments or components of the new learning and teaching process which he said had become necessary due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID -19) which has forced the closure of tertiary educational institutions in the country.
Appropriate technology
First, Prof. Blankson indicated that lecturers or faculty members should not overwhelm students with too much material. They should especially avoiding long videos lasting an hour and use 10-minute videos with vibrant contents.
Monotonous reading by lecturers, according to Prof. Blankson, must be avoided while due attention must be paid to the video with audio quality.
He further explained that short audio clips to give feedback via WhatsApp, zoom and regular channels such as emails or even within Turnitin could give students quick feedback on the go.
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Such channels, Prof. Blankson said, could also be used alongside the institutional learning management systems (LMS) such as Moodle, Blackboard and Sakai.
Instructional material
According to him, since remote teaching practices are different from the traditional classroom teaching and learning, uploading PowerPoint notes into LMS might not be effective since those new to this teaching approach would require some adjusting period.
He referred to quality open educational resources from credible institutions available online for use that faculty should explore as a guide in designing their online instructions. He gave an example of the University of Illinois Course-In-A-Box as a helpful resource for effective course design.
Student’s duty
Delving deep on instructions, Prof, Blankson called for a well-designed and structured online class, a I-pager for example, detailing what topics and in which format (group discussion, online quiz among others) as well as timeliness for students and always giving enough time (depending on the task) for students to complete tasks.
Assessment
With regard to assessment, the university don explained that it could be done using e-portfolios such as Evernote or Mahara, which enable students to track their own progress while lecturers teaching large classes as in the case of Ghana, lecturers could group their students to work collaboratively online.
Cheating
On cheating, he stated that such an issue could be addressed with pre-emptively using LMS randomised and timed multiple-choice questions as well as proctoring systems that alert and disconnect students as soon as they tried to look up for an answer online.
Given the emergency that had forced many institutions to go online, Prof. Blankson pointed out that students and faculty feedback was critical to streamlining online teaching and learning and that institutions must listen to their faculty since they formed a critical part of the stakeholders in the remote teaching process.
Data
Dwelling on data, Prof. Blankson was of the view that institutions must utilise data analytics to generate insights for improvement.
Such data, he said, could be generated from the LMS to know, for example, the number of students participating in online discussions and the rate per task per student at the end of a semester.
“LMS is a module which generates activity logs and reports per each student at the click of a button,” he said.