Victoria University, Vodafone launch Jump Academy

"The best offer a university can give to a student is when they are helped to discover themselves. It is a compass given. Students must understand that when they go to university and out of it, they get a mandate to make a change in their lives and society." Said Joseph Nyakaana, the acting Vice Chancellor, Victoria University.

"Parents consider their children to be like ATM machines, but higher education is not. The expectations of society must be addressed through hands on experience, internship programme, study work programmes, student ambassador programmes ought to be emphasized. We need an out of class pedagogy to churn out graduates that are work and market ready," Nyakaana added.

Nyakaana was speaking at the launch of Jump Academy, an online content platform for university students in Uganda at Victoria University Kampala. The e-learning platform has categories in education, entrepreneurship, self-improvement and lifestyle. As part of the education category the JUMP Academy provides students with free and unlimited access to a wide range of educational materials, tailored to the Uganda University curriculum.

The JUMP Academy comprises a series of recorded lecture videos that cut across various subjects based on the Uganda university curriculum. The 15 minutes videos show topical tutorials by different lecturers and will be uploaded regularly. The pioneering and partner lecturers on the Academy will be from a range of universities notably Victoria University, Kyambogo University, African Bible College, Kampala International University, Makerere University Business School among others.

Cynthia Ayeza, the JUMP editor for Education category expressed optimism of the Academy saying "the conversational-style tutorials which move away from the typical lecture-hall style, will fuse theory and practice in one, which is an opportunity for wholesome learning. I encourage young people to take advantage of this opportunity because it will give them the opportunity to access beneficial information at the tip of their fingers."

John Ndego, the Vodafone Chief Executive Officer says digital learning is the way to go in today's digitized world. Moses Kilama an ICT student at Victoria University said the initiative will go along way in helping students understand concepts better. The tutorials are entirely free to all the subscribers of Vodafone.