UI May Resume Online Teaching To Stop COVID-19 Spread

The management of the University of Ibadan has started planning to adopt a safe model of teaching and learning in order to curb the spread of COVID-19 on the campus.

The university said it was considering a blended model of teaching which is online/ physical teaching and learning.

The Registrar of UI, Olubunmi Faluyi, said in a statement on Monday that the recorded number of COVID-19 positive cases and deaths nationwide called for caution and proactive steps must be taken to stop the virus from affecting more people.

Aside reducing physical gathering , the registrar said the university would also make COVID-19 vaccines available to its students and staff to further stop the spread of the virus.

The registrar said, “This is to inform the university community that management has requested the faculties to identify the courses to be taught online and those to be taught physically en route to the commencement of the blended mode of teaching and learning for the remaining part of the second semester of the 2020/2021 session.

“The Emergency Remote Teaching Committee (ERTC), in its proposal to the Committee of Provosts and Deans (CoPD), in a meeting, held on the 11th August, 2021, had noted and recommended as follows:

“More cases of Covid-19 are being announced nationwide. These call for caution and proactive actions which should take into consideration, in the main, the review of the mode of teaching and learning in the second semester and, as a consequence, provide a safe way to undertake pedagogical activities on Nigerian university campuses;

“With the daily rising cases of the Delta variant of Covid-19, and with several cases within the main and the College of Medicine/UCH campuses, the ERTC considered a proposal of blended teaching for the second-semester lectures in the university.

“The blended learning model should be officially decided in terms either of availability of sections of the student population for online or physical encounters or the categorization of courses as online or physical which neutralizes choice of location or keeps all students, in principle, in physical presence within and/or around the campus;

“The ERTC platforms and tools (LMS, zoom, youtube, gsuite accounts, telegram fora, solution clinics) should be maintained for use by students and staff in all cases;

“Google meet which is practically free should, in addition, be encouraged for lectures since all academics have access to Gmail accounts.”

The statement explained further that going online fully was one of the steps that could be taken to stop further spread of the virus on the campus.

It added, “If the situation worsens on campus, full online engagement should be mounted for all courses as was done in the first semester, exempting only departments and units with special needs with the condition that evident strict compliance with the protocols will be observed.

“Bigger zoom rooms for courses with more than 1800 students should be purchased and added to the existing pool.

“From the above submissions, it is clear that going fully online or adopting a blended approach to teaching is one of the steps to take to ensure the safety of all staff and students given the increasing rate of infections being experienced in Nigeria and on our campus.

“Management commends all departments engaging in virtual/blended teaching since the commencement of the 2020/2021 Session. All departments are urged to immediately take advantage of existing arrangements and commence virtual/blending teaching. The Directorate of Information Technology and Media Services (ITeMS) and the ERTC are on the ground available to provide technical support.”