Kaduna State University expands online lectures for undergraduate and postgraduate students 

The Kaduna State University (KASU) says it has expanded its current online lectures to cover all departments in postgraduate and the undergraduate programmes to keep the students learning while on Coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown.

The university’s Director of Academic Planning, Dr Salisu Tahir, made this known in an interview with newsmen in Kaduna on Monday.

Tahir said that the university’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) team had recommended the use of Zoom platform for postgraduate lectures and Google Class for the undergraduate lectures.

He said that the university had begun a week-long training for the academic staff to effectively adopt the user-friendly platforms to teach the students.

He added that the directorate of academic planning had developed a module to enable the lecturers to simplify their lecture notes and make them detailed for the students to comprehend.

“The reading materials would be uploaded online for the students to access via a platform developed by the ICT unit of the university.

“Also, because of the challenges in accessing internet data, lectures will be conducted strictly within a limited time possible.

“For classes that require demonstration and some form of activity, we have encouraged the lecturers, particularly those in sciences and medical sciences, to do so in form of video or audio.

“This will be delivered to the students through the social media, where they can watch or listen, including some web links to some relevant learning resources, where students can make comments or ask questions,” he added.

NAN recalls that the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Muhammad Yanko, had on April 17, announced the begining of online lectures for the postgraduate students and promised to extend same to the undergraduates.

“This is in response to the directive of the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu and Gov. Nasir El-Rufai to all schools to commence e-learning to keep students academically busy throughout the lockdown period.

“This will significantly complement the conventional classroom teaching and enable us to keep up with the academic calendar that has been disrupted by COVID-19 pandemic,” Tanko said.