A one- week training workshop on Multimedia Production which was attended by 26 lecturers selected from all Colleges of the University of Rwanda and 4 e-learning technicians was held from 23 to 27 July 2018. The training was hosted by the University of Rwanda, College of Education, financially supported by the UNESCO-Korea Funds- in-Trust (KFIT) Project on ICT Transforming Education in Africa.
This training workshop was facilitated by a team of three experts in multimedia from the Korea National Open University (KNOU) contracted in the framework of the above mentioned project: Prof. Ock Tae KIM (team leader), Prof. Yong KIM and Ms. Seulbee LEE.
Participants were both collectively and individually shown how to integrate multimedia in the modules
Dr. Nduwingoma Mathias, the Director of Centre for Open Distance and e-Learning (CODeL) and the focal point of “ICT Transforming Education in Africa Project ’’ at the University of Rwanda noted that this project, which is working in three countries, namely Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Rwanda, has supported the University of Rwanda in capacity building and policy development for the expansion of ODeL provision.
Nduwingoma affirmed the objective of the training on Multimedia Production as focused: ‘’ Equipping lecturers who are the designers of the modules with skills in order to be able to incorporate multimedia materials in their modules that are going to be online’’. He emphasized by adding: ‘‘We are adopting a learner-centered pedagogy and we want our students to get the teaching material online without any stress’’.
RUKUNDO Pascal, UNESCO National Program Officer emphasized in his remarks that education at all levels should be provided using ICT, and encouraged the participants to learn from the facilitators in order to advance higher education provision through ODeL.
When interviewed about the role of the UNESCO in the training he asserted that “This training on Multimedia Production comes with the effort of the UNESCO and the Government of Rwanda to support the expansion of higher education through the provision of ODeL’’. This, he continued, is within the project mandate to strengthen the University of Rwanda in providing quality higher education’’.
The training was officially opened by the acting College Principal, Dr. Muhirwa Andre, who is the Director of the Centre for Teaching and Learning Enhancement. In his remarks, he welcomed the representatives of the Korea National Open University to the University of Rwanda, College of Education and commended the Korean Government for the continued support to the Government of Rwanda particularly to the University of Rwanda through the ICT Transforming Education in Africa project.
‘‘As you all know, the University of Rwanda is moving from the traditional teaching approach to the new approach using technology. We need to move from what we were doing as teachers, where mostly we were using face -to- face contacts with our students’’ Muhirwa Said
During the workshop, participants were taken through the channels of delivering e-learning contents (with an emphasis on media type, lecture content design type and organization of lectures), e-learning content and lecture note (video-based e-learning content, e-learning lecture structure and lecture note structure) and Office Mix Manual.
Posing for a group photo at the closing ceremony of the training workshop
Umutoni Jane, Assistant Lecturer at the College of Arts and Social Sciences said that she was optimistic that the training would yield good results. According to her, the training will help make teaching more interesting for lecturers as students will be able to do things on their own rather than depending on the lecturers to spoon feed them.
On behalf of the trainers, Prof Ock Tae KIM said that he liked the moderate climate of Rwanda and its mountains which are similar to the Korean’s mountains. He particularly appreciated the high commitment by participants and their eagerness to learn
Mr. RUKUNDO Pascal, on behalf of UNESCO asked all these trained to transform the teaching learning landscape through the skills they had acquired. He also informed participants that a second session is scheduled in January for e-learning officers.
The training was officially closed by the College of Education Principal, Prof. George Njoroge. In his remarks, he thanked the experts from the National Korea University for the skills and knowledge shared. He emphasized the relevance of the multimedia skills in enhancing quality education the country expects from the University of Rwanda.
‘’This training is a result-oriented training. If you have been trained you have to demonstrate what the training was all about’’ Njoroge addressed to participants.
He added that universities should recognize that the demands of the young people today and the demands of the country are changing; thus the need to prepare for work, jobs and occupations that are not there today’.
“If we think like the teacher of yesterday, then we have no business being there tomorrow! We have to leverage technological development tools to make learning and skills acquisition enjoyable and relevant to learners’’ Njoroge concluded.
Multimedia inclusion during module design has a significant role because it combines five basic types of media into the learning environment; text, video, sound, graphics and animations, thus providing a powerful tool for enjoyable learning.
Story by NTIRANDEKURA Schadrac/ PRO-Rukara Campus
Published by UR Communication Team