Unibadan Distance Learning Centre

UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN
DISTANCE LEARNING CENTRE

ASPIRE SYMPOSIUM

The UIDLC Aspire Symposium is being organised to motivate UIDLC Learners in building a healthy mindset and self-esteem in order to engender pursuit of relevance; spur them to take advantage of the time advantage which Open and Distance Learning avails and stimulate Career Prospect and Focus.

The event is scheduled to hold on Thursday, 28 October, 2021 at the PIFA Hall of the UIDLC CBT Centre at 11:00 a.m.

Speakers will be speaking from academic and professional angles with practical infusion on the following topics:
1. Leveraging ICT for Entrepreneurial Development: The Distance Learning Advantage
2. Planning your Professional Development
3. Unschooling for Entrepreneurial Development

Expected participants are Learners on the University of Ibadan Distance Learning Mode of Study who have registered for the programme through an internal mechanism. However, the event will be streamed live on the Unibadan Distance Learning Centre page.

See flier for details.

UIDLC INVITES SPECIAL APPLICATIONS FOR ADMISSION (2020/2021 ACADEMIC SESSION)

UIDLC FLAGS OFF SPECIALIZED WORKSHOP FOR ITS E-TUTORS

The idea of having dual mode universities in Nigeria has proven to be a laudable shift from the face-to-face mode of educational delivery. University of Ibadan has been at the forefront of the Distance Learning intervention on the platform of its Distance Learning Centre. Inevitably, education stakeholders have all been drawn to the unescapable new normal where they need to be more intentional about real time online educational delivery.

Unarguably, the COVID-19 is a health crisis with direct impact on the health sector and by extension, the economy. Specifically, its effect on the educational sector cannot be overemphasized. The response of distance learning solution providers to the changing tide in educational delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic is critical to successful teaching and learning in the new normal.

It is in this light that the Management of the University of Ibadan Distance Learning Centre collaborated with EduTech Portal to organise a four-day specialized workshop for the Centre’s E-Tutors. The workshop was designed to train UIDLC E-Tutors to be online course design and delivery specialists. It will enable them to design and update course content, and deliver a rigorous programme of technology-enhanced online and mobile learning modules for UIDLC learners, in line with National Universities Commission (NUC) approved ICT-enabled curriculum delivery.

The workshop was flagged off with an opening ceremony today, Wednesday, 15 September, 2020 in the PIFA Hall of the UIDLC Computer-Based Testing (CBT) Centre. The ceremony was graced by the Vice Chancellor, Professor Abel Idowu Olayinka FAS and the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic), Professor Adebola Ekanola. In his address, the Vice Chancellor gave a retrospection of the Centre evolution. He relayed the humble beginnings of the Centre from a wooden office to the CBT Centre. He asserted that blended conventional learning was being modified because of the coronavirus pandemic. He appreciated the efforts of past Directors of the Centre. He then commended the incumbent Director, Professor E.B Omobowale for sustaining the momentum. He mentioned some of the achievements he had recording in the different positions he held prior his appointment as Director and expressed confidence that with crop of academics and administrators he had on his Core Management team, the Centre would be taken to greater heights.

He noted that it was too early to assess the team, but submitted that the indications were clear that the team will record great feats for the University of Ibadan. He added that the Centre was not a mere money generating unit but a solution provider. He then urged the seventy E-Tutors who had been scheduled to participate in the workshop to make the best of the engagement which would feature resource persons with prerequisite knowledge and experiences in Open and Distance Learning.

In his remarks, Professor Ekanola opined that the ideals of Distance Education being established in the UIDLC would be imported into the mainstream. He commended the UIDLC Management for organising such a robust workshop as depicted on the line up of activities for the four days. He then admonished participants to be poised to learn new skills and update their knowledge in online facilitation so as to be relevant in global trends.

The Director in his speech reassured the E-Tutors that their recruitment process would be regularised when normalcy is restored in the University. However, he noted that the crop of E-Tutors participating in the workshop were carefully nominated to start driving the process of online engagement. He reiterated that the essence of their engagement was to add value to the system, hence the workshop. He then emphasized the need for all-inclusiveness in the wake of the new normal on the educational terrain. Consequently, he submitted that due to the apparent exigencies, emphasis was being laid on quality online interactions with UILDC learners, which needs to be doggedly pursued at this time.

The importance of targeted capacity development of E-Tutors cannot be overemphasized. In spite of technological advancement, faculty plays very critical role in distance education. E-tutors, therefore, have the responsibility to support curriculum delivery and improvement of online learning. It was easy to deduce that the workshop would ensure transfer of training to real work hands-on situations. Also, it would enable E-Tutors integrate technology more efficiently and effectively into learner support and facilitation and provide excellent remote delivery of instruction through research based innovation.

With the workshop, we can only look forward to a more vibrant and relevant UIDLC which will contribute in no small measure to the pedigree and clout of the University of Ibadan. This is yet another feat and expectations are high that it will further project the university in the global prominence.

Dayo Olajide
Communications Officer, UIDLC