The lecturer capacity building approaches for online pedagogy at the e campus of maseno university, kenya

http://ecampus.maseno.ac.ke Slide 1 of 5
Third Annual eLearning Innovations
Conference
THE LECTURER CAPACITY BUILDING APPROACHES FOR
ONLINE PEDAGOGY AT THE E-CAMPUS OF MASENO
UNIVERSITY, KENYA
Barbara Khavugwi Makhaya
eLearning Systems Support
Specialist

Session Outcomes
 Identify the obstacles to adoption and utilization of eLearning by lecturers in
Maseno university
 Explore the strategies designed to overcome the challenges of eLearning
adoption by lecturers
 Evaluate the achievements gained from the strategies used by Maseno
university to improve on the adoption of eLearning among the Lecturers

The Maseno University eCampus Journey
The year 2004:
Senate resolution
to start ODeL
The Year 2007:
Establishment of the
eLearning Center
• Development of institutional policies and
strategies for promoting the innovative use
of ICTs to benefit learning, teaching and
research activities in Maseno University.
The Year 2012 :
eCampus
• Establishment of an
Institutional learning
Management system
as the center of the
eCampus

Maseno University at a crossroads
June 2008:
Maseno University was at a crossroads at this point,
with some understanding of the ODeL options available to
the institution, but certainly no clear way in which to move
forward. Progress was being made in both the print-based
resource development and also the videoconferencing
resources, with some initial exposure of a few teaching and
technical staff to the Learning Management System (LMS)
Moodle.

Evolution of eLearning at Maseno University

The eCampus at a glance
Distance Students
User Administrative portal /
eCampus website
eCampus Core Staff
Director eCampus,
Unit Coordinators,
School Coordinators,
Administrative staff,
Finance staff,
eLearning Systems
Support Specialists,
Instructional
Designers, Editors,
Graphic /Interface
Designers, Web
Programmers, Learner
Support Assistants,
Multimedia Specialists,
Copyright Officers,
eLibrarians
Curriculum
delivery via
the Learning
Management
System (eLearning
Portal)
Learner Support
Services, Course
Facilitation,
Helpdesk etc
eLibrary
and e-resources
Off-shore
Secure
server
Student
Assessment
Student
Admissions and Registration
System (STARS)
Regular Students
Course
Developers
/ Course
Lecturers

The eCampus- Statistics
 In its first semester, the eCampus had 23 courses offered with approximately
120 students enrolled in four programmes.
 In 2015 there are an average of 220 courses offered each semester and
approximately 950 students enrolled in 16 programmes.
 In addition there is about 1000-1500 Students taking up 1 blended course
offered to regular students through the eCampus every semester.

The Obstacles to eLearning Adoption
Online learning initiatives often have issues with teaching quality and
problems with eLearning adoption are common (Elgort , 2005) and
Maseno’s experience is no exception.
 Minimal Commitment to teach online among teaching staff
 Slow acknowledgement of the new dynamics of online teaching
 Low remuneration Compare red to part-time payments in other
campuses
 Teaching load :Online teaching was not considered as part of
the lecturers normal load

The Obstacles to eLearning Adoption
 Schools and Departments did not take ownership of online courses
 eLearning course development and delivery was not
considered as part of their job description.
 Processes within the department did not cater for the unique
needs of online learners

The Strategies adopted by the eCampus to
improve on eLearning adoption in Maseno
University
More frequent and enhanced training to prepare faculty to transition into
the online environment with the same level of confidence exhibited in
traditional classroom set up.
The training includes Deans and HODs since they are responsible for
enforcing the adoption at the school.

Training For Online Pedagogy
 The eCampus has adopted a three tier approach to training lecturers on
online pedagogy .The first level is orientation to eLearning for lecturers. The
orientation to eLearning’s aim is enhancing the lecturer’s technical skills in
using the institutional LMS. This is meant to tackle the self-efficacy issues
with regard to using the Institutional LMS.
 According to Elgort (2005), to effectively diffuse eLearning, the approach
should take a multidimensional approach located in two planes: the plane of
technology and the plane of pedagogy (or teaching and learning).

School eLearning Teams
 To enhance the school’s ownership of eLearning, the schools have
constituted school eLearning support teams. The teams are made up of the
eCampus programmes coordinator (ePC) and departmental course
facilitators (DCFs). The team work under the supervision of the ePC.
 The ePCs are drawn from the various departments and/ or set of
departments/ schools and remain administratively answerable to the
respective deans. The ePCs are responsible for quality assurance at the
eCampus during course design, development and delivery processes and
learner support functions.

Strong Technical Support
 The eCampus technical team plays a key role in providing individualized
support to the lecturers.
 Each school with a programme at the eCampus has a technical team leader
who works closely with the school representatives at the eCampus.
 The technical team and the eCampus Programmes coordinators identify the
lecturer capacity needs and design blended workshops to address the
identified needs.
 This necessitates the continuous and individualized support for lecturers to
win them over into adopting eLearning. The personalized attention impacts
the lecturer perceptions on the usefulness of eLearning and attitude towards
use of technology in teaching..

Strong Technical Support
 To enhance the school based learner support function at the eCampus, the
technical team have designed support discussion forums for the ePCs.
 Pedagogy and learning management systems designs are intertwined. It is
important to consider how the environment supports the delivery of
instruction, and facilitates effective learning experiences (Johnson, Rickel,
Stiles, & Munro, 1998).

Achievements Gained from the strategies Adopted
 The schools eLearning teams have tremendously impacted the learner
support and facilitation of online courses. The learners are receiving
prompt feedback on the course discussions, assignments and quizzes.
 The formation of school eLearning teams have resulted in improved
ownership of eLearning at the schools. With increased ownership at the
school level, the course content quality is enhanced by continuous
review of course content by the teams.

Conclusion
 The lecturer skills are continuously enhanced by ongoing targeted
training sessions at both individual level and school level.
 As Maseno University through the eCampus continues to encourage
eLearning approaches, there are plans to implement further incentives
and training strategies for the lecturers. The Research Monitoring and
evaluation office continues to offer quality assurance and explore
strategies to improve on eLearning adoption by lecturers.

Funding and Guidance from
Brigid McDermott
McDermott_research.support

The lecturer capacity building approaches for online pedagogy at the e campus of maseno university, kenya

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