Last week by midday, Friday 20th March all the academic institutions in the country had closed including universities following the directive by the Ugandan president, His Excellency President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni in bid to curb Coronavirus.
Days after this closure, many universities came up with ideas of continuing with their studies through online classes termed to as e-learning. But do we all understand what e-learning means?
E-learning is a type of learning where students utilize electronic technologies to access educational curriculum outside of a traditional classroom. Everything is delivered completely online, this helps those who can not access the university classrooms to study from wherever they’re and it is commonly known as distance learning.
Content on e-learning is delivered through the internet not necessarily via a CD-ROM, flash disk or any other recorded videos. By this process, an open discussion where the students can interact with their lecturers or even with their other students in class is created.
Course works, assignments and exams are all done online and results are provided at the end of it all. Universities that have online classes always have a specific section on their websites or a direct portal where students can access the forum though they have to first apply for it. Through signing up, a student is required to choose his/her username, password then goes ahead to edit his/her profile by adding personal information plus the course offered and after all this, the student is ready for the online classes.
So far, some universities have taken this option of study to provide education to their students. These include Uganda Christian University (UCU), Bishop Stuart University (BSU), ISBAT University and many more others. UCU has even gone ahead to spearhead exams online and their students will report back in the next semester (September).
