A Webinar on Online & Blended Teaching and Learning: Challenges and Strategies
On the 12th of June 2020, Bluecrest University College in collaboration with the Association of African University held a webinar session discussing the challenges and strategies on online and blended teaching and learning in Africa.
With an impressive registration of over 300 individuals from different parts of the world, our panelist deliberated on the following:
- How to accelerate online and blended teaching and learning in Africa
- Are educators accepting online and blended teaching in Africa? What are the fears and challenges for educators?
- How should students in Africa be oriented to adopt online and blended learning?
- How to prepare other stakeholders for the transformation in the education industry in Africa to facilitate online and blended teaching and learning.
Panel Members
Dr. Fred McBagonluri, (Provost and President at Academic City College, GhanaPro)
Ms. Liz Keable (Success Coach)
Dr. Anand Agrawal (Rector (President), BlueCrest University College, Ghana)
Sujith Jayaprakash (Director and Business Head — New Edge Infotech (NIIT Ghana)
Ms. Nodumo DHLAMINI (Director — ICT Services, Comms & KM, Association of African Universities)
It was a very interactive session with the panelists and participants and the topics covered the relevant issues important for different stakeholders: Students, institutes, regulators, and educators during the Q&A a number of questions were raised and also contributions made by the participants.
- How do we merge online teaching with practically oriented courses that require laboratory demonstrations?
- How equipped is online education infrastructure to deal with students with disabilities, particularly those with auditory and learning disadvantages?
A large number of participants expressed their need and willingness to participate more in such events related to online and blended teaching and learning.
It’s no news that due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, the educational system in Africa faced quite a number of challenges — some schools couldn’t further with teaching because they didn’t have an online learning system in place.
A few points were raised during the session on how the educational system in Africa needs to have a standardized structure, making emphasis on how online education is now a necessity and how the system needs to embrace the new way of teaching (Online learning) through technology.
One big question emerged from the webinar: Do we have the structure in place for effective online teaching and learning, and what are the measures taken to ensure that this would be put in place? Also, how do we intend to solve these challenges we face with online education strategies, what innovations can be recommended for its success, and what needs to be put in place for it to work?
You can access the recorded video of the webinar via this link and also subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/311WiNw
BlueCrest College has been a pioneer in introducing technology-based education, online teaching, and blended learning in the region. All the students of the college are successfully completing their semesters using these means during the COVID situation, and the college did not face any challenge in the front of teaching and learning continuation due to the lockdown because of the pandemic.
As the next step to this initiative, BlueCrest College is now planning a global online conference with the participation of larger panel members, educators, practitioners, and researchers from around the world, during the last quarter of this year. For more information on the college, please visit www.bluecrest.edu.gh.
