Among the leading universities in the world today, Kenyatta University had to, eventually, encourage the use of E-Learning facilities. As such, the university in the recent past has been on a quest to introduce and enhance these facilities – which as a result, has led to the increased enrollment in the campus!
Don’t believe me? First, watch the video above.
The Digital School of Virtual and Open Learning (DISVOL), among the youngest of the fifteen schools in the university having been established from the former Open Distance and e-Learning Institute. The creation of this School is embedded in the university’s long and cogent tradition of outreach and the noble desire to promote educational opportunity by widening access to higher education through virtual learning environment and blended open learning. This is to cater for students who are unable to study the university through the traditional full-time on campus mode.
The Vice Chancellor of Kenyatta University Prof Olive Mugenda said that, “It’s a commitment to offer distance learning school to meet the needs of the learners. We have introduced the use tablets to learners to make it easy to carry it around with them and all the manuals will be uploaded for them.”
This as such took care of those in need or who would have wanted to further their education n a more convenient way – away from the university. And true to the cause, yesterday I met a high school classmate, leaving with a free tablet by the university at hand for his mom who had enrolled for the program!
More-so, the university has gone ahead to introduce the globally recognized Eduroam network to the university for easier and faster access to the internet wherever you are in the school compound! This has greatly reduced the number of students who previously had to know all the reliable internet hot-spots in the university. Fun fact: eduroam (education roaming) is the secure, world-wide roaming access service developed for the international research and education community. It allows students, researchers and staff from participating institutions to obtain Internet connectivity across campus and when visiting other participating institutions by simply opening their laptop.
Although some might argue this is encouraging plagiarism, to me, that depends on the individuals virtue. It’s better to provide people with the knowledge to better themselves and leave them to decide on what to works for them and what doesn’t.
Anything I’ve left out? Feel free to add to the list of How E-Resources Transformed Learning in Kenyatta University in the comment section below. 🙂
