UTG, AVU Set to Launch Two E-Learning Programmes

UTG, AVU to Launch E-Learning Programmes

The University of The Gambia (UTG) and the African Virtual University (AVU) have reached an agreement to introduce new virtual and electronic learning (e-Learning) programmes at the UTG. The project is under the second phase of AVU's Multinational Support Project. The Computer Science and Teachers' Education Programmes will enable students to access lectures through electronic learning and gain their degrees.

The project is funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB); and the UTG is among several other African universities to benefit from the project. The AVU is a Pan-African inter-governmental organisation established by charter with the mandate of significantly increasing access to quality higher education and training through the innovative use of information communication technologies. Fifteen African Governments, including Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania and Mozambique have already signed the charter establishing the AVU as an inter-governmental organisation.

At a pre-launch meeting between the two institutions of higher learning, on Thursday at the UTG Science, Technology and Invocation Park in Faraba Banta village, the vice chancellor of UTG, Professor Muhammadou Kah, said the government of The Gambia and the UTG have already contributed some funding to support the project. He said four classrooms have been spared at the UTG campus in Faraba Banta for the programme, with a high speed fibre cable for internet connection already installed within the whole campus.

 "At UTG, we believe that through technology, we can transform learning and teaching," said Professor Kah, who also told the gathering that with a strong and mutual partnership between tertiary institutions, they can show to the world that e-learning has the potential to ensuring quality education.

He further informed the gathering that the UTG has already established an e-learning partnership with the Indian government, through the African e-learning project, which will be entirely conducted through virtual learning. The introduction of the two programmes at the UTG, he added, will help participants to effectively take part in the electronic lectures without much effect on their other official duties. "We envisaged that this will provide opportunity to our teachers wherever they are to access lectures and gain their different degrees," he remarked.

For her part, Dr Thrrezinha Fernandez, head of AVU regional office in Dakar, Senegal, said her institution has different ICT methods to provide e-learning in Africa. She explained that the AVU was initially launched in Washington in 1997 as a World Bank project and was later transferred to Kenya in 2002, before it became an inter-governmental organisation in 2003.

According to her, AVU has developed significant experience in the delivering programmes, ie; building and managing large consortia of African Educational Institutions, designing and implementing Multinational e-Learning projects as well as developing African-based residential and eLearning materials for partner institutions and the establishment of state-of-the-art e-learning centres in partner institutions.

Declan Ottaro, a senior ICT officer at the AVU regional office in Dakar, said AVU has trained more than 40,000 since its inception in 1997. "The greatest asset of the AVU is its ability to work across borders and language barriers in Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophpone," he noted. Ottaro further stated that as the leading Pan African e-learning network, the AVU has acquired the largest eLearning network in Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophpone Afroica with more than 53 partner institutions in 27 countries.