The Repercussions of Covid-19 on Ghana’s Knowledge Economy and the Panacea (Part 2)
As medical researchers go through the dead of the night to seek for medical solutions to the COVID-19 plaque, should all facets of life be at a stand still? Should academic meetings, lectures, conferences, presentations, etc. seize? A big NO.
In this era of emerging technologies coupled with the surprises from the pathogenic world when the ivory tower universities are moving from face-to-face lectures to electronic learning (e-learning) and mobile-learning (m-learning), students and universities in Ghana at large cannot go the opposite.
There are 1000s of free online applications such as: teamviewer, GoToMeeting, Google Hangouts, ZOOM Cloud Meeting, Skype, ClickMeeting Webinars, icampusgh.com (for SHSs), etc., which can facilitate effective and efficient teaching and learning in our schools.
In addition, softwares such as Google Classroom, LeMass, Moodle, Sakai, BlackBoard, Schoology, etc., can be used for assignments and assessments with ease.
Meanwhile for these tools to be effectively deployed, the concerns of students with regards to authentication, data, network bandwidth and smart devices, should be speedily addressed.
With authentication, every student of a particular university, programme or course must be allowed to partake in the online teachings and assessments whether s/he owes fees or not. We are not in normal times and students are restricted from making payments and getting receipts for course registrations. What is the rational in disallowing eligible students from being part of such platforms when the Students Loan Trust Fund has not released their loans to them?
On data, as a matter of principle, at least 10-20% of school fees must be credited to students as data since they are not using school resources in these trail moments.
To address the issue of low network bandwidths, schools should adopt asynchronous e-learning (learning should not occur at real-time or pace) rather than synchronous (learning at the same time). Lectures could be recorded and sent on student platforms. Multiple choice questions, assignments and mini project works with good timelines should be administered to students instead of the old essay and laboratory practical ways.
Finally, on smart devices, students, parents and guardians should equally take responsibility in purchasing or borrowing one for use.
In conclusion, asynchronous e-learning is the best way to go in these COVID-19 days but appropriate measures should be put in place to enjoy the fortunes of this new phenomenon.
Richmond Koduah (KDee)
NUGS Presidential Candidate ’19
NSA Student Activist of the Year 2016
