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

Chief Igbinedion

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.

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