MTU advises Federal Government to invest in e-learning research

Mountain Top University, acting Dean of Postgraduate Studies, Dr. Ibidapo Akinyemi, has advised the Federal Government to invest in e-learning.

MTU is a private university with a mandate to transform and rejuvenate the social-economic and political ethos of the nation. It is located in Makogi Oba, Ogun State.

Akinyemi, in a meeting with our correspondent, said both public and private universities should make sure they were ready in giving quality training to students using e-learning.

Dr. Ibidapo Akinyemi

He stated that strong internet connectivity was vital in online teaching; also MTU was able to give continuous learning to its students during the pandemic lockdown.

“I would advise the government to see why we should embrace e-learning and provide a number of things in place in readiness for any eventualities.

“The National Open University that has been in existence for long, most of their programmes are online but it has not been done the right way. I would advise the stakeholders, private and public institutions to even think in that direction like what would be an alternative way to learning peradventure there is an issue just like last year lockdown?

“We should all be thinking about an alternative way of conducting online teaching system. That means we should all embrace technology and ICT to see that we move in that direction, knowing fully well that we are in the computer age,” Akinyemi stated.

He disclosed that switching to e-learning because of the pandemic was innovative as staff members were upgraded and trained to meet up with the prerequisite of using e-learning.

“MTU as a faith-based university tried as much as possible to keep the students busy in the course of the pandemic by ensuring that all the academic staff are involved in the online teaching and in that regard we used Zoom and Google classroom.

“We tried as much as possible to organise a kind of training on digitalisation for all the academic staff and it was a very nice experience,” he declared.

In addition, Dr. Moses Abiala, the acting Dean of Students’ Affair, MTU, said, “I believe the virtual learning in Nigeria institution should be inclusive.

“The students are always on social media so we can catch them easily through virtual teaching, since that is where they belong, especially during this pandemic. There must be commitment and we must keep educating them on the preventive protocols.”