Former Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Prof. Folasade Ogunsola, have called for a significant expansion of open and range learning as Nigeria seeks to resolve the expanding gap between the demand for university education and offered areas.
They made the call on Tuesday at the 5th colloquium arranged by the Range Learning Institute of the University of Lagos in Lagos.
The event, themed “Reimagining the Open and Distance Knowing Community: Technology, Policy & Institutional Priorities,” brought together academics, policymakers and other stakeholders to analyze how technology and policy could improve access to higher education.
Osinbajo, who chaired the colloquium, said the country could no longer depend largely on the conventional campus-based university system to accommodate its growing population of young people looking for tertiary education.
He noted that more than 2.2 million Nigerians make an application for admission through the Joint Admissions and Enlisting Board every year, while the standard tertiary education system has actually historically been able to accommodate just a portion of the need.
According to him, the situation is likely to end up being more difficult as Nigeria’s population continues to grow, making it impractical to attempt to solve the access issue exclusively by constructing extra classrooms, hostels and other physical facilities.
He argued that open and range knowing ought to be dealt with as an important component of Nigeria’s higher education technique instead of as a secondary choice for students who can not go to conventional universities.
Osinbajo stated the country needed to reassess its method to university education and benefit from emerging technologies, especially artificial intelligence, to offer quality education to a bigger variety of learners.
He explained that AI might assist distance-learning organizations offer students with more individualised scholastic support through customised descriptions, evaluations, feedback and learning resources.
However, the previous Vice-President cautioned versus simply moving traditional class activities online and explaining the process as academic change.
He stated innovation should be used to revamp the knowing experience instead of just change physical lectures with virtual ones.
Osinbajo likewise stressed that distance knowing ought to extend beyond youths pursuing their very first degrees. He said it could offer chances for professionals and older employees to acquire new skills and remain relevant as technological changes continue to reshape the office.
He determined bad electrical power supply, high internet expenses and the cost of digital devices as a few of the barriers that should be addressed if distance education is to reach more Nigerians.
He promoted the advancement of learning platforms that could operate successfully on mobile phones and, where possible, provide offline access to discovering products.
According to him, the ultimate function of innovation in education ought to be to expand human capability and develop chances, instead of just demonstrate technological advancement.
Speaking at the event, Ogunsola said Nigeria’s quickly growing youth population had actually made it necessary for universities to reassess the conventional technique to providing higher education.
The Vice-Chancellor noted that the nation has about 89 million young people between the ages of 15 and 30, with an average age of 19.
She said the scale of Nigeria’s youth population suggested that the traditional university design alone could not supply enough chances for college.
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Ogunsola also challenged the perception that open and range knowing was inferior to standard university education.
She said recognized qualifications acquired through distance knowing were of equal value to those awarded through full-time programmes, including that UNILAG does not show on trainees’ certificates whether they studied through its distance knowing or standard programme.
According to her, the university uses the same quality requirements throughout its programmes despite the mode of study.
She said the future of distance education should concentrate on creating more powerful connections between students and institutions, enhancing trainee engagement and making sure that increased enrolment translates into better knowing outcomes and employability.
Ogunsola determined artificial intelligence as one of the technologies that could transform distance learning by supporting customised instruction, supplying instant feedback, assisting in content advancement and helping organizations determine trainees who might be struggling academically.
She, however, cautioned that the growing use of AI in education would also require universities to attend to issues such as academic stability, data protection, copyright, algorithmic predisposition and the changing obligations of lecturers.
The Vice-Chancellor called for clear policies to assist making use of digital credentials, online evaluations, artificial intelligence, micro-credentials, credit transfers, acknowledgment of previous learning and quality control in distance education.
She advised Nigerian universities to stop treating open and distance knowing as a separated program and instead integrate it into their broader institutional methods.
Ogunsola also encouraged stakeholders to reevaluate the way success in distance education is determined, arguing that the focus needs to extend beyond the number of graduates produced to the knowledge, abilities and contributions of students after graduation.
In his keynote address, a Fellow of the University of London, Emeritus Prof. Stephen Brown, stated universities required to develop their approach to open and distance discovering around their specific institutional and national truths.
Brown stressed collaboration among universities, regulators, innovation service providers, students and other stakeholders as an important consider successfully broadening correspondence course.
He said organizations needed to comprehend their own circumstances while likewise identifying the impact of organisational culture and the broader education environment on the success of their programs.
Previously, the Director of the UNILAG Range Knowing Institute, Prof. Risikat Dauda, stated the colloquium was especially pertinent provided Nigeria’s continuing difficulties with access to education.
Dauda said global advancements in open educational resources, artificial intelligence, micro-credentials and versatile credentials revealed that the future of education was increasingly moving towards lifelong, modular and versatile learning.
She included that the participation of specialists and specialists from Nigeria, Ghana and the UK supplied a chance for stakeholders to exchange concepts and take a look at how worldwide developments in correspondence course could be adjusted to the Nigerian context.