Two officials from Higher Ed Partners, South Africa, have called on the Vice-Chancellor to introduce an online education solution for distance education.
The two officials were the Chief Strategy and Engagement Officer, Totsie Memela-Khambula and Deborah Jewell-Sherman.
Services of Higher Ed Partners, South Africa
Making a presentation at the meeting, Memela-Khambula said the key focus of the visit was to partner UCC to create an online platform for its distance students. She noted that her organisation provided online platform for Universities to expand access to high quality and affordable higher education. She noted that lecturers of the University would be assisted to redesign and upload their course content on the online platform for easy access by students. “We support partner university faculties and instructional design teams with best practices in the design, development and optimization of their online courses to deliver a high-quality experience,” she explained.
Memela-Khambula said the organisation was currently providing online services to 54 partner universities across the world with 3, 500 professors. She said there were more than 400 modules for instruction on the platform. She indicated their comprehensive solutions approach has helped to deliver sustainable growth for universities and also created a supportive environment for students to attain personal and professional success. “Our integrated, comprehensive approach to supporting universities in all aspects of online programme management is a model proven in the US, UK and Latin America that has helped to ensure students success and retention” she noted.
Reasons for Choosing UCC for the Partnership
According to her, they chose to partner UCC because the University has carved a niche in the delivery of quality distance education to a greater number of Ghanaians. “Our online solution will help the University to reach students beyond Ghana since most countries in Africa are eager to enrol on UCC’s programmes,” she noted.
Developing Virtual Classrooms for UCC Distance Education
On his part, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah, said UCC was making effort to develop virtual classrooms for the College of Distance Education to minimise the face-face contact with students. “We spend huge monies on recruiting tutors to handle courses at the various centres across the 10 regions in the country. The virtual classroom is to minimise this practice and also ensure that we leverage on technology to deliver quality services to our students” he indicated.
Prof. Ampiah noted that the University was interested in partnering reputable organisations to provide online services for its distance education and therefore, asked the officials to present a proposal to Management for consideration.
Present at the meeting were the Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Prof. George K. T. Oduro; Registrar, Mr. John Kofi Nyan; Provost, College of Distance Education,Prof. Isaac K. A. Galyuon; Senior Assistant Registrar at the Office of the Vice-Chancellor, Mrs. Georgina Asi Owusu and the Assistant Registrar, Mr. Felix Adu-Poku.