The supervisory body to all degree awarding institutions in Nigeria, the National University Commission (NUC) had acknowledged long before now that all stakeholders agree that the practice of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) by the conventional dual mode universities is far below acceptable best practice and that at best, they are in transition from the running of part time or sandwich courses to distance learning. Admitting that the National Open University, the only university with approval to run ODL certainly can’t satisfy the over 170 million Nigerians, the National Teachers’ Institute (NTI) in Nigeria beyond other programmes it has mounted previously has decided to run ODL degree programmes also but using lecturers from the conventional universities as facilitators. It is the obvious challenge facing the workability of this arrangement that necessitated this paper titled towards a technologically enhanced quality open and distance learning practices in the open and distance education programmes of the NTI Kaduna Nigeria and the implications it has for capacity building. Best ODL practices worldwide are determined by how extensively it is ICT driven. The challenge of using the practically unfit conventional lecturers as facilitators has placed a demand on NTI that a strategic plan be made to train facilitators for fully ICT dependent ODL programmes. It is discussed in the paper the accompanying challenges in the area of cost, time and availability of such facilitators. The rural dominated settlement pattern in Nigeria is envisaged to place a major obstacle in the area of contacts, communication, power need and wooing sufficient patronage. It is recommended among others that a leave should be borrowed from successful existing ODL institutions world over as well as having the understanding that it is the facilitators that determine if a programme is ODL or face to face conventional type and so the programme must be given whatever it takes financially for adequate capacity building.
Title of Article
Towards a Technologically Enhanced Quality Open and Distance Learning Practices in the Open and Distance Education Programmes of the National Teachers Institute Kaduna Nigeria and its Implication for Capacity Building
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Author(s)
Sharehu, Aminu; Achor, Emmanuel Edoja
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