By Luke Bisani
The Catholic University of Malawi (CUNIMA) this week shared knowledge to officials from Malawi Adventist University (MAU) on how they can implement E-learning in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.
Officials from MAU were drilled on how they can use online platforms to teach students from their respective homes as the country continues fighting against the spread of Coronavirus.
During the training, Director of Academic Affairs at CUNIMA, Rev. Dr Dominic Kazingatchire disclosed that the University adopted Google Classroom as platform that is now being used for teaching students at CUNIMA.
“We had to look at the effectiveness of this platform and its practicality. In its nature, it is cost-effective, can be monitored easily, and can accommodate up to 1,0000 students,” said Fr Kazingatchire.
“It also overcomes some challenges like persist power cuts because students are able to get whatever the lecturer has posted on the platform, unlike other platforms that require more bandwidth from students and at the same time require every student to be online when the lecturer is teaching,” added Dr Kazingatchire.
He added that the University has put in place measures to monitor the effectiveness of teaching students online as a way of maintaining its image of being centre of excellence and offering quality, holistic education in the country.
Fr Kazingatchire applauded MAU for trusting CUNIMA to train them on how they can implement E-learning at their University.
Head of Basic Sciences Department at MAU Mr Victor Nkungula who led the team applauded CUNIMA for sharing the skills and experience on E-learning, saying the training has marked away forward for them on teaching their students away from campus.
CUNIMA started teaching its students online following the directive of government which ordered closure of schools due to Covid-19.
As schools remain closed, E-learning has been the option most feasible for delivering learning materials following the suspension of on-site teaching across the globe.