UgandAshis 48 Online teaching

UgandAshis 48

August 13, 2009

Online teaching

E-learning or long distance learning is high up on the agenda of Mountains of the Moon University. It is to expand the number of students and to respond to a group of students who cannot come to Fort Portal for all the lectures yet wish to do training in Public Health. It was a good day today as I flipped through a DVD to find that the Oxford book of Public Health was available on it. Preparing lectures has become easier. There were also several other books available to prepare lectures with.
Then during dinner all of a sudden an idea came to find. As the online students are not in classes why not record the lectures of all the lecturers and deliver them either by CD or by pod cast format. In this way all lectures of the public health courses can be made an available at any given time and students can revisit a class as well. In an ideal world power point presentations should be added to the curriculum but it seems that many of the lecturers have difficulties creating them.

It will be about 2 weeks more before classes start and I am starting to find more and more material to start classes with. It also helps that I am staying in a house right now with several of the lecturers of different courses of the University. Remember that a proper access to Internet is lacking and that the library for the medical faculty is very limited. Students here are asked to rote learn, are read to from a text book and questions are seldom asked. I heard today we have at least 50 candidates in the first year. It is another 12 days before the first years start and the second and third years will be starting in 5 days.

Professor Ekke and I are hoping to start with several lectures we will do together. I am much looking forward to it. The lectures will be recorded and posted online so eventually all that are interested can see what is happening at MoM University. We also discussed the role that medical students from the USA and Europe could play in the development of the University over the next years. At first we may aim at several knowledge, attitude, practice and behavior studies of the indigenous tribes as to know which direction our future research should take.

In the mornings I go to the hospital to do some rounds and in the afternoon I return to prepare my lectures. The dogs and my lovely house are a good reason to return to Kampala and first I will have Lonneke and Nard come and visit me in Fort Portal. Right now they are enjoying the mighty park of Queen Elizabeth. What a pleasure it was just to drive through the park. And as my parents will be visiting from August 23 I hope to get in another visit to a nature camp.

Namaskar,
Ashis Brahma