UNIMA to introduce e-learning

The rising uptake of internet technologies in Malawi has prompted the University of Malawi (UNIMA) to strategise on the introduction of electronic learning (e-learning) in all its five constituent colleges so that students can attend virtual classes.

Collaboration between public and private partnerships are bringing e-learning to thousands of poverty stricken Africans who cannot access traditional education, political conflict, lack of teachers and infrastructure.

UMIMA lecturers are brainstormed at the Chancellor College in Zomba under the facilitation of Professor Harold Holt from the United Nations Universities (UNU) headquarters in Norway who said e-Learning is a process whereby students pursue various specialised courses through the Internet.

According to ‘The Promise of E-Learning in Africa: The Potential for Public-Private Partnerships’ report by the IBM Endowment for the Business of Government - a unit of IBM Corp. of Armonk, New York, USA - concluded that e-learning offers a flexible and cost-effective way to span Africa’s rural distances and make alternatives to regular classroom settings available through such technologies as satellite downlinks, interactive television, videoconferencing and virtual educational networks.

Prof. Holt revealed that UNIMA upon its acceptance to the UNU membership having signed the charter will access the state of the art e-learning platform.

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Malawi, Professor Leonard Kamwanja expressed hope that once introduced, e-learning will enable aspiring students to pursue further studies in a number of specialised fields and relieve current pressures felt by UNIMA like bed space.

“About 50,000 students complete their secondary school education annually, but only about 4,000 are called for university entrance exams, of which only 18 percent of the eligible candidates are admitted,” Prof. Kamwanja explained.

According to Dr. Emanuel Fabiano - Principal for Chancellor College - his institution plans to procure more computers to improve networking and learning among the university community through the Internet saying the move will enable the college to run online learning with no or limited hassles.

Southern Africa Regional Director for Learning for Environment and Development (LEAD), Professor Sosten Chiotha reminded the participants that knowledge was the basis for any meaningful development and financial resources must not be a limiting factor to the introduction of the e-learning at UNIMA.

“In education, financial inputs should not be a worry. What should be considered are the positive impacts that the elites bring to the entire society,” Prof Chiotha advised.

UNU is a "virtual university" sponsored by the World Bank which uses satellite and computer technologies, Internet access and an online digital library of over 1,000 full-text journals to deliver academic courses to students in 15 sub-Saharan African countries. By the end of a pilot phase in early 2000, more than 12,000 students had completed semester-long courses in engineering and the sciences through the university.

Introducing e-learning technologies in Africa presents many challenges but public and private partnerships are creating an increasing number of success stories there.