WITH the outbreak of Coronavirus pandemic, Igbinedion University, Okada
(IUO) has expectedly opened a new window of learning; research and
documentation re-enforced by e-learning programmes for students in all
strata. By this arrangement, parents and guardians would have no course to
worry about in the Covid 19 lockdown as students can now interface with
lecturers through online learning management system (OLMS).
The novel programmes has put the University and its management on the World
Map given institutions and businesses across the globe have been shut down
to curb the spread of the disease which is estimated to have taken millions
of lives.
As expectedly, the system allows students to have lecturers through the
modular system of online learning. At the moment, lectures are going on in
the Dr Good luck Jonathan College of Arts and social sciences, in other
colleges lectures have fully commenced with OLMS and about 70% of students
have enrolled so far.
Succinctly, lecturers daily upload their lectures on the portal using the
modular with reading list, course outline, classes assignments and seminar
topics as necessary. Students on their part are expected to do their
assignments and send via the portal to the respective lecturers for
correction and grading, and result to be sent back to them. Leaving no
vacuum in the system, the post graduate level seminars will be presented
through the e- conferencing system where the aceesors interface with
students.
Arrangements are being made to enable students present their seminars and
defend their thesis through zoom, a medium through which students and
lecturers interact. Consequently, it is recorded that IUO is on it’s verge
of becoming the best university in Nigeria and beyond.
In the forgoing, the university has fully deployed the online learning
management system and their supplementary platform for both the
undergraduate and postgraduate for lectures and assignments.
Interestingly, students do not see e-learning as replacing traditional
teacher- led instruction but as a compliment to it, forming part of a
blended learning strategy, as the school has over 86% of its students
captured across the globe on the OLMS, to this extent, continuous
assessment tests (C.A.Ts) has been concluded on the platform and results
will be ready before 27th may 2020.
Furthermore, final year students are set to commence project defence
virtually on the OLM starting from the 8th June 2020, been the second week
of June, in keeping faith with the approved 2019/2020 Acedemic calender.
Suffice to say that I.U.O is about the very first private university in
Nigeria and sub- Sahara Africa to come up with this initiative in line with
the vision of Sir Chief Gabriel Igbinedion who has come out first in
different fields of human endeavours.
In line with the policy to shape the future of the students, and making
them fully furnished with essential skills that will make them successfully
engage in global enterprise and entrepreneurship, the university also
established a Microsoft academy in collaboration with Microsoft, having a
twenty first century Microsoft skill center in the campus which avail the students opportunity to train for mikro Tik courses like Mikro Tik
Certified Network Associate — MTCNA, Mikro Tik Certified Routine
Engineer– MTCRE, Mikro Tik certified Wireless Engineer — MTCWE, Mikro Tik
certified Traffic Control Engineer –MTCTCE, Mikro Tik certified User
Management Engineer MTCUME, Mikro Tik Certified IPv6 Engineer MTCIPv6E,
Mikro Tik certified Internetworking Engineer MTCINE.others are the Mikro
Tik certified Security Engineer MTCSE and Mikro Tik certified Advanced
Security Engineer MTCASE. This and more the university hope to achieve upon
academic resumption.
IUO’s strategy has given credence to the saying that a nation without
sound, quality and innovative education can not compete with its
counterpart in the comity of nations. This corroborate the vision of a
former American president Abraham Lincoln when he said “I will read, work
hard and prepare for I know that one day, my chance will come”. It is
needless to begin a research on the role of education in a developing
countries like Nigeria.
The context and the contents of Nigerian education will no doubt determine
the future of our generation yet unborn.The country has also had its fare
share of the ills of low quality education. For instance, in 2002, at a
time the whole world was waiting to see the potentials of the country
through an organized beauty contest of the world scheduled to hold in the
nation’s capital and the city of Lagos, crises erupted as a result of a
statement made by a female journalist Isioma Daniels and of course the rest
is now a story never to be forgotten.
The point here is that if education had played the role it ought to play,
the understanding, enlightenment and the gains of education would be
harnessed to take Nigeria to an enviable height rather than make a mess of
a supposed great nation. At a time Nigeria was heading towards the doom
associated with low quality or none availability of education, Chief
Gabriel Osawaru Igbinedion established the nation’s premier private
university, Igbinedion university (IUO) to salvage the situation.
The visionary Chief Igbinedion did this not only to increase the number of
tertiary institutions in the country, but did it with the clear intent to
raise the bar above the standard it was and bridge the gap in the nation’s
educational system. Apart from meeting the educational needs of the largest
and the most populous black people of the world, the university has become
the mirror through which the future can be viewed.
Having met an international standard, the institution runs virtually all
the courses in Art and humanities, medical sciences, engineering,
agricultural sciences, social sciences, management sciences, Law
information and communication technology amongst others. No meaningful
achievement would be made without a skilled workforce and a managerial
competence to stir the ship of development, hence, the engagement of
Professor Lawrence Ezemonye as the new Vice Chancellor who is currently
leading other renowned scholars to actualise the set goals.
