- The displays will first be distributed to MKU’s ODEL centres then later to other campuses, including the main campus in Thika
- The university also intends to build smart classrooms across the campuses and a recording studio for content development
Image: HANDOUT
Mount Kenya University has launched a plan to upgrade its ICT infrastructure at its Open and Distance Learning centres.
The infrastructural upgrades include interactive displays that are expected to ease interaction between students and lecturers during online lessons.
A range of teaching aids that make virtual learning more effective, will also be provided.
The aids are specifically for science and mathematical courses that require lecturers to demonstrate different concepts.
The university on Wednesday acquired 18 new interactive displays and expects to receive more in the coming months.
The displays will first be distributed to MKU’s ODEL centres then later to other campuses, including the main campus in Thika.
The university also intends to build smart classrooms across the campuses and a recording studio for content development.
This will complement earlier developments where the university began a journey of self-paced content development and digitisation.
MKU’s board of directors chairman Simon Gicharu said in undertaking the infrastructural upgrade, the university is trying to be forward thinking.
“As a university, we need to ensure that we are alive to where the world is going, embrace technological transformations and embrace some changes that may be unpopular,” he said.
“The traditional model of brick and mortar universities will most likely be replaced by open universities that provide programmes through virtual platforms and retain only small administrative offices.”
"The interactive displays will allow a lecturer to incorporate a range of useful apps or teaching aids that support in simplifying different concepts in class, hence enable a lecturer to be more effective in training students virtually.”
MKU Vice Chancellor Deogratius Jaganyi said the infrastructure is informed by the digital shift.
Many students joining colleges and universities started to interact with digital devices at an early age hence the need for change.
“Today, we mark another milestone in academic online learning. I was reflecting the other day on the fact that we are phasing out Generation Z and soon we will welcome Generation Alpha in the higher education system," Jaganyi said.
"This generation is hyper connected and technologically diverse. They have grown in a digital environment where all knowledge is just a click away.”
He said it is high time MKU fully embraced the fourth industrial revolution by entrenching technology mediated modalities of teaching and learning.
This way, the institution will meet teaching and learning needs and expectations of the current generation.
"MKU has already embraced digital transformation and we are well aware that pacing up growth in digital technologies will give us a competitive advantage in a turbulent and highly competitive higher education environment,” Jaganyi said.
He said the interactive displays will promote a vibrant research ecosystem at the university.
“I also note that the interactive displays will be useful in supporting collaborations, conferencing and presentations for postgraduate students,” the VC said.
“All this will go a long way to enhancing the transformative quality of teaching in e-learning and conferencing experiences at MKU. We will definitely exceed the expectations of our number one stakeholder, that is, the student."