Online learning in Uganda's universities - a missed opportunity?

May 15, 2020

It is apparent that beyond national investment in infrastructure there has to be a deliberate and concerted effort to change the mindset and capacities of both the providers and users of online learning as a mode of learning

By Dr. Florence Mayega Nakayiwa

Despite massive investment in national ICT infrastructure, online learning has not been embraced during the lockdown by universities and schools, which suggests that barriers to online learning are more than simply infrastructural.

When the country announced a partial lockdown and the closing of schools and learning institutions due to COVID-19, avid promoters of ICT, virtual and online-based learning saw it as a golden opportunity that would change the practice of online learning in higher education. 

The concept of online or blended learning has been on the higher education agenda for close to two decades.  There have been varying interventions from a range of sources: bilateral and multilateral agencies and US foundations. 

At the national level, the National Information Technology Authority of Uganda (NITA-U) has implemented the National Data Transmission Backbone Infrastructure and e-Government Infrastructure Project (NBI/EGI). This was an effort to connect all major towns within the country to an optical fibre cable-based network, with video conferencing and Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) in government ministries rolled out in government ministries.

At the higher education sector level, several investments have been made to promote ICT and online learning, not only in universities but across the entire spectrum of higher education institutions.

For example, 5% of 76 units of account in the recently concluded African Development Bank's Support for Higher Education Science and Technology (HEST) project was dedicated to ICT. This covered the last mile link the national backbone, procurement of ICT materials - computers and other accessories - as well as capacity for online programmes.

Noting earlier investments in several of the public universities, and the national commitment to a digital vision for Uganda which would see the country create a positive social and economic impact through technology-based empowerment.

An opportunity to test the new ICT capacity presented itself at the time of the abrupt closure of schools and universities as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. After all, the same measures were adopted in China where the virus started and have been implemented in both developed and developing countries alike.

How then is it that most universities did not put in place measures to offer online learning and those that attempted to do so were deterred by the government from either completing the process or drawing lessons from the process for themselves and other players?

There are four key issues for universities, policymakers and the students to reflect on. It is apparent that beyond national investment in infrastructure there has to be a deliberate and concerted effort to change the mindset and capacities of both the providers and users of online learning as a mode of learning. 

  1. Staff capacity development and attitudes towards online learning. The focus of several staff development initiatives in Uganda has been towards advanced degrees at masters and doctoral levels. Few have policies to promote as a mandatory requirement the enhancement of pedagogical practice and continuing teacher/lecturer education that enables them to match especially the dynamic changes in ICT and learning. 

  2. Fear of the unknown and inequity in access to ICT resources. Despite the substantial investment in ICT infrastructure and increase in mobile phone coverage, ICT has not been appreciated as an alternative mode to facilitate higher education learning.

  3. The generation gap and attitude to using ICT. While all youths/learners have adopted mobile telephony as a way of life, with several using it to promote communication, entrepreneurship, and other day-to-day operations, the institutions themselves have not embraced mobile telephony as an alternative learning aide.

  4. Autonomy and academic freedom of universities in Uganda.  The Universities and other Tertiary Institutions Act 2001 as amended was intended to establish and develop a system governing institutions of higher education while respecting the autonomy and academic freedom of the institutions, and widen the accessibility of high-quality institutions to students wishing to pursue higher education. Within the provisions of the ACT, where is the distinction between policy and the limitations to autonomy and academic freedom? Does the potential to continue with online learning when a university is closed constitute a policy that the government has the prerogative to alter?

 

We can conclude that the adoption of ICT in learning, curriculum review, and in the delivery of higher education programmes in Uganda, is still a long way off, or maybe this is the time to reflect on how it can be mainstreamed in the offering of degree programmes? Its potential for increasing access to higher education cannot be overemphasised, and the opportunity to utilise resources that are accessible to most youths should not be easily overlooked. And perhaps the COVID-19 shut down period was the missed opportunity for universities in Uganda.

The writer is the deputy executive secretary for planning, resource mobilization and management at the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) based at Makerere University in Uganda.  This article appeared in the University World News - https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20200413083638806

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});