Lecturers play a central role in the success of adopting new teaching methodologies like mobile learning. Universities must invest resources to equip academic staff with teaching skills to operate effectively in a changing world. Some challenges to preparing lecturers include resistance to change from focusing too much on research, and students rating teachers low for using innovative methods. Programs like coaching, mentoring, teaching qualifications, and formalizing academic developers can help overcome these challenges. With the right training and support, lecturers can act as the fulcrum and catalyst for effective student learning in a volatile environment.

1. Lecturers as Catalysts and Fulcrum of Mobile
Learning*
• By Prof. Faustin Kamuzora** and Aurelia Kamuzora
• Mzumbe University, Tanzania
*Presentation at the eLearning Innovation Conference, KICD, Nairobi. September 30 – October 2, 2015
**Cost of participation in the conference was paid by the VRIL‐OUS GRE@T Programme

2. Presentation objectives
• By the end of this presentation, the participants will be able to:
• Appreciate the need of universities to adopt their curricula and
teaching methodologies to the world of volatility, uncertainty,
complexity and ambiguity (VUCA)
• Recognise the centrality of the lecturers in the success of the
adoption of new teaching methodologies including m‐learning
• Be exposed to some of the challenges some universities face in the
quest of developing their lecturers to be the best in teaching function
and strategies to overcome the challenges.

3. Universities in the World of VUCA
• Globalisation and technologies are making universities operate in
VUCA world
• What is position of the educators? Strengthened or weakened by the
two forces of globalisation and IT revolution?
• Are best lecturers born or made?

4. Desired Learning Outcomes for graduates*
• Future citizens who will be critical beings in society.
• Ability to take charge of their own learning;
• Ability to function meaningfully with others;
• Use technology to better their lives, others as well as improving their
surroundings;
• Competency and being able to use creativity to sustain themselves.
• Ability for collaboration across networks and leading by influence;
*See Msila (2014: pg 214), Turner (2012), and Gerstein (2015)

5. Desired Learning Outcomes / 2
• Agility and adaptability;
• Initiative and entrepreneurialism,
• Effective oral and written communication;
• Accessing and analysing information;
• Empathy and global stewardship curiosity and imagination;
• and above all the ability to learn new things since the world is
changing very fast.

6. Some new forms of teaching, learning and
assessment in the VUCA world
• Massive open social learning (cf Community of learners, peer
review)
• Learning design informed by analytics
• Flipped classroom (several Lecture Capture technologies)
• Bring your own devices (BYOD), (wear your own device is
here already – Google glasses, Apple watch, etc) – the IoT
• Learning to learn for the (triple L – Life Long Learning)

7. New forms of teaching /2
• Dynamic assessment
• Event‐based learning
• Learning through storytelling
• Threshold concepts
• Bricolage (DIY)
Source: Sharples, et al (2014: pg 3‐5)

8. Centrality of lecturers in teaching function
• Problems facing lecturers in African universities: students’ diversity,
large class sizes, industry and professional demands – all these call for
more than academic qualifications to excel in teaching (Omingo,
2015).
• Unlike teachers in primary and secondary schools in East Africa,
lecturers in higher education are not trained to teach. The few who
are trained were trained to teach in secondary schools and not in the
universities (Omingo, 2015).

9. Teaching and pedagogy as raison d’être of
universities
• Both teaching and pedagogy are wicked problems (Ellsworth, 2011)
• Teaching is more of acquired skill: it needs to take into consideration
the students’ background knowledge, the curriculum, the inherent
diversity of students in a course, the culture of the institution, the
pedagogy of the discipline, the accreditation process, the learning
space, etc by Aziza Ellozy (2015).
• Thus, introduction of technology in education should have a
pedagogical leaning

10. Teaching / 3
• Teaching needs a generalisable, integrated approach that starts from
the premise that ongoing and meaningful development opportunities
are not a “nice to have” offering for staff who happen to be interested
in teaching and willing to invest particular effort, but a matter of
survival for modern universities in an age when greater access is
needed not only for individual goals but also for societal and
economic needs ( Nan Yeld, 2014)
• The importance of effective teacher as navigator of knowledge is one
of the constants

11. Challenges – resistance to change
• Faculty resistance to change comes from various quarters, but one of
the prevailing reasons is the age‐old competition between teaching
and research. In most cases, research is perceived to be more
important or more prestigious than teaching and instructors are not
incentivised to develop their skills (Aziza 2014.

12. Challenge /2
• Experiences from other universities indicate that some lecturers who
introduce interactive and innovative teaching methods are rated low
by students
• Such teachers must be protected by the university management
• Since universities are recipient of students from lower education
systems there is a need of introducing such innovative learning
techniques from there

13. Academic Staff Dev programmes
• Some universities demand teaching qualifications such as
The Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (PGCHE),
alternatively called the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice
(PGCAP) before a lecturer is entrusted teaching.
• Coaching and mentoring from senior staff (efforts to train the
coachers and mentors)
• The Peer Assisted Teaching Scheme (PATS) provides a structured yet
flexible approach to reinvigorating teaching practice in a supportive
and collegial environment.
• Need to formeralise academic developer professionals ( Quinn and
Vorster, 2014)

14. Conclusion
• Effective teaching is not just a talent, it is also a skill. The East African
universities must invest various resources to ensure that their
academic staff are equipped with the necessary skills to teaching
effectively.
• The importance of effective teacher as navigator of knowledge is one
of the constants in the world of VUCA
• If the teaching is universities’ raison d’être it must be given more
weight in career progression of academic staff in EA universities
• Blended learning offers a practical way of offering teaching skills and
qualifications such Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice
(PGCAP).

15. Conclusion /2
• Therefore, the lecturers are both fulcrum and catalysts of effective
learning
Learning Outcomes
Students
Lecturers
Learning
Effective lecturer

16. References
Aziza Ellozy (2015): Online learning needs a well‐trained faculty
http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20150924102823341 accessed on 28/9/2015
Ellesworth, E. (2011). The Wicked Problem of Pedagogy – An Afterword. Available at http://learningthroughdigitalmedia.net/the‐wicked‐problem‐of‐
pedagogy‐an‐afterword Accessed on 28/9/2015
Gerstein, C. (2015). The Other 21st Century Skills: Educator Self‐Assessment. Available at
https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2015/01/16/the‐other‐21st‐century‐skills‐educator‐self‐assessment/ Accessed May 2, 2015.
Msila, V. (2014). Heutagogy, Africanisation and Learning: Experiences from an Open and Distance Learning (ODL) Program at the University of South
Africa. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences. Vol 5 No 14, July.
Nan Yeld (2014) “Government's new plan for student success” from http://mg.co.za/article/2014‐07‐11‐governments‐new‐plan‐for‐student‐success
accessed 28/9/2015)
Omingo, M. (forthcoming). Systemic Conditions as Prompts in Lecturers’ Learning to Teach Effectively in Private Universities in Kenya
Quinn, L. & Vorster, J. (2014). Isn’t it time to start thinking about ‘developing’ academic developers in a more systematic way? International Journal for
Academic Development 19 (3): 255‐258.
Sharples, M., Adams, A., Ferguson, R., Gaved, M., McAndrew, P., Rienties, B., Weller,M., & Whitelock, D. (2014). Innovating Pedagogy 2014: Open
University Innovation Report 3.
Milton Keynes: The Open University.
Turner, J.R. (2012). Training & Learning Theories: Pedagogy, Andragogy. Heutagogy. Available at http://johnturnerhptresource.
blogspot.com/2012/07/training‐learning‐theories‐pedagogy.html. Accessed May 5, 2015.