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By Zika Bobby
Education experts, including administrators of tertiary institutions, have been urged to leverage technology by embracing digital learning in order to deepen access to quality education.
This was the submission of the conversations during the August edition of EdTech Mondays, an initiative of the Mastercard Foundation in partnership with Co-creation Hub.
The virtual roundtable, moderated by social engineering practitioner, Joyce Daniels, featured panelists such as the Acting Head of Department, Environmental Health Sciences, National Open University, Nigeria (NOUN) Oluremi Saliu; an Information Technology scholar, NOUN, Michael Asefon and a lecturer at the University of Ibadan, Oluwatoyin Ajilore-Chukwuemeka.
Speaking at the roundtable with the theme: “Digitising Higher Education in Nigeria: Opportunities and Challenges”, Saliu said digital learning had always been the driver for learning in tertiary institution such as NOUN noting that COVID-19 pandemic was an eye-opener on the many possibilities available to acquire education.
She said it was gratifying to note that most tertiary institutions in Nigeria are beginning to embrace e-learning, stating that it had taken the form of revolution with underprivileged, poor and rich now having access to it.
She said NOUN now enjoyed a robust learning environment with students having access to educational resources.
IT scholar, Asefon who is a software engineer, said the benefits of digital learning cannot be overemphasised noting that it creates room for flexibility and was less distracting.
He advised ed-tech innovators and university administrators to provide training and infrastructure platform to facilitate easy adoption of e-learning, both by the students and teachers.
University of Ibadan don, Ajilore-Chukwuemeka explained that the challenge with adoption of digital learning does not lie with infrastructure and training alone, but also behavioural changes on the part of students and teachers.
