In her recent speech to the nation, the minister of education and sports Hon Janet K. Museveni said that academic institutions will remain closed in this lock down but allowed higher institutions of learning to roll-out online studies their students.
Following the Minister’s permission to allow higher institutions conduct online studies, the regulator of higher education National council for higher education came up with guidelines that must be followed for successful online studies and these include the following;
- Before any institution rolls out the e-learning, both the academic staff and students must undergo training on how the systems will work.
- Institutions must ascertain the ability of all students to participate to ensure that no student is left behind in the process.
- Academic institutions are required to give evidence of the mechanism of access and usage by both students and staff. Here, the academic institutions should explain how they will engage students who have no access to electronic gadgets, data and network coverage.
- Academic institutions will provide assurance of mainstreaming of disability and gender as part of the recovery actions.
Assessment
- Academic institutions are required to have proper measures on examination, including equity and quality assurance. In case examinations are to be administered online, institutions must train staff on online examination, and provide face recognitions for both students and lecturers. In addition, Universities, vocational and technical colleges will be required to deploy security and anti-examination malpractice protocols to administer an online examination. In the absence of the above, NCHE has suggested that final examinations should be done on campus, when institutions re-open.
Practicals
- NCHE also requires academic institutions to demonstrate strategy of completion for programmes which require practical engagements, such as medicine and engineering.
- They must give an action plan indicating how teaching and learning, as well as assessment of practical and theoretical aspects of the programmes will be implemented.
Cyber Risks
- Institutions must also provide attendant budget to support the new schedule of teaching and learning. They must also demonstrate capacity to mitigate cyber risks and assurance that relevant laws and regulations, such as data protection and privacy Act 2019, will be complied with.
How institutions can apply
Eligible institutions may apply to NCHE for consideration to roll out an ODeL system during the current lockdown.