RuFORUM Team Visits Kabale University

(“Ensi eri aha nziiga, neyetorora. Mwiije tugyende naayo etatutsiga” literary translated as, the world is on wheels, Come-all-yee lets go catch it before it leaves us.)

That is a song that was usually sung in Elementary School and the words by then didn’t seem to make much sense as they do now! These are the times when no one should be left behind.

The world today is undeniably moving at a very high speed in terms of embracing digital technology, higher institutions of learning are increasingly becoming aware of the diversity of their current and potential learners and they are moving to blended learning.

For starters, Electronic Learning (eLearning) consists of teaching using computers and the Internet that is based in or out of the classroom. Digitalclassworld.com defines eLearning as, providing training and development to the students/Employees through various electronic media such as the Internet, audio, video, etc.

An acceleration in the adoption of eLearning grew extensively and massively during the Covid 19 lockdown. Millions of students were stuck at home in Lockdowns that were intended to contain the further spread of Covid 19. Several academic institutions in Uganda and the world at large looked at remote learning not only as a much-needed remedy but also as a future modifiable solution to sustain the education sector.

On the 22^nd of June 2022, Kabale University received a team of visitors from RuFORUM. Their main aim was to learn how the University is implementing eLearning in the institution. They specifically aimed at looking at the existing eLearning infrastructure, activities and equipment which have been supported with seed funding that has been given to Kabale University, and also looking at the potential areas where the University can be supported or expanded in order to enhance eLearning in the University.

According to David Martin Aamito the Technical specialist on Systems administration at RuFORUM, Kabale University is a very promising and exciting University and according to their survey, they chose it because as one of the beneficiaries that needed support and capacity building in learning in order to transition from face-to-face learning and also blended learning.

Nada Siddig Abdalla Musa, a Technical Specialist(Knowledge Management) at RuFORUM said that they received funding from the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) which is to help a number of institutions in Uganda and Malawi in eLearning under the general African digital Program in RuFORUM called the AFRIDAP. The main pillar is focusing on eLearning which is jointly supported by BADEA AND Common Wealth of Learning (COL).

RuFORUM has already supported Kabale University with seed funding and this initiative is expected to encourage the integration of online education and the implementation of regional eLearning agenda across Africa. Currently, KAB has more than 7000 students registered online and over 300 lecturers using these resources.