Prof. Susan Kilonzo – Maseno University, Kenya 

BACKGROUND 

public universities in kenya, and in most african countries, have grown exponentially in numbers in the last three decades. this may not be matched with prerequisite resources for quality teaching and learning. the choice of pedagogical methods therefore becomes tricky for most faculty. studies have shown that in such environment, the more preferred option for teaching is lecturing, which may yield very little content retention, practise and ability to transfer knowledge. with the advent of covid-19 in 2019, learning in most kenyan (and african) institutions was almost grounded. the transition to online teaching and learning, with an aim of mitigating the challenges of the pandemic, at the beginning, was marred with guesswork and uncertainty. most staff, who were untrained in online teaching, shifted the lecture and handout methods to online teaching. the learners were in turn not ready for a paradigm shift.  

INTERVENTION 

PASGR intervened, not just to provide skills on how great online teaching and learning should look like, but also, how to mainstream pedagogy that speaks to production of the right knowledge and skills. Designing, Facilitating and Assessing of courses in professionally sound way was the focus of the programme. The trainers in the programme went through the training first, before training their peers. They together re-worked the content by integrating their suggestions on what worked and what did not. The modules offered have followed this format of revisions after every single offering. I benefited from this endeavour, and in turn started the journey to initiate others within and outside of my institution. One of the expectations was for the intervention to aid in the understanding of the diverse tools and platforms for online teaching, given the varied institutional subscriptions. Important was for teachers to understand how they could structure the content. A key highlight for the latter is constructive alignment that helps the teacher determine the learning outcomes expected of the learner in a course, and align the leaning activities and assessment to these outcomes. This is one of the things that even in face-to-face approach, teachers hardly consciously focused on. Besides, the programme brought to fore the varied strategies of facilitating online. Case teaching, debates, role plays, flipped classrooms, among others have been a highlight of the training. The many e-cases availed for the participants to learn from, have been quite useful in re-thinking ways in which teachers can come up with their own teaching aides. Assessment for most institutions in the face-to-face mode remain to be course work tests and summative tests. This has been dispelled by the intervention from PASGR’s training that provides varied tools for assessment. A highlight has been the use of eportfolio not just for the learners and teachers to document their learning experience, but as a tool for assessing various skills. The use of rubrics is now famous unlike before. The theory of change, from this intervention can correctly be labelled as “transformative”.   

RESULTS 

The PedaL project has been useful in quite a number of ways. The initial venture for those who had not been teaching online before, was fear, and need for quick fix. Most faculty would upload notes and/or PDF handouts for learners to access and read. The training therefore revolutionized this, bringing an understanding that designing, facilitating and assessing online courses is an art that requires commitment to the process; and patience as one gets to learn new way of doing things. Most of those who have gone through the training are not just focused on building useful learning content, but also horning skills and innovative strategies to facilitating and assessing. Some of the highlights in this has been revolutionized course outlines that guide the planning of teaching and learning activities, and new strategies as well as tools for facilitating and assessing attainment of course outcomes. 

LESSON LEARNT 

As already pointed out, moving from uploading of handouts, and notes, to designing full course on the LMS has been one of the great achievements and contribution made by PedaL. A highlight for me in the journey has been the realization that there is so much that one can do with an online course, and so many ways of structuring the course to allow for the learners to enjoy the learning process. These innovative strategies are available in most available and affordable ways, and staff need just to be creative. Teaching and learning should not be boring. Assessing using rubrics is now my favourite. When Covi-19 pandemic began, we would do multiple choice questions, and this would be easy, but ineffective.  

I am also now very careful on how I integrate learners into the learning process. I am sensitive to their varied needs and their suggestions. One of my turning points on this was when I received a text from a partially-deaf learner, who said that he had been attending sessions but he was unable to hear most of the things we discussed and had to rely on his friend later after the sessions. This learner can comfortably do asynchronous activities but requires help with the synchronous sessions. 

AHA MOMENTS 

At personal level I have changed the approach to designing of online courses, teaching and assessing. I am conscious of the need for learners to achieve the set course outcomes at the end of the training, and therefore conscious of the activities I design and the how of doing these activities, so that they can be effectively assessed, for me to understand if the outcomes have been met. Further, I have benefited from the many facilitation tools and strategies at my disposal, which I vary across the courses depending on suitability for learners to enjoy the process. Assessment has been made easy. There are courses that I have allowed learners to have assessment rubrics early in advance so that they are aware of what is required of them. There is no agony in learning anymore! I am no longer strained to have physical classes with my postgraduate students. Close to 85% of the teaching and learning happens online. I have also been lucky to do a number of facilitations online. At a collegial level I have shared the knowledge gained with colleagues, either through different training programmes, or one-on-one basis with colleagues at my institution as we continue to venture into how we can do things differently. 

FURTHER INFORMATION 

In a recent training, funded by The Association of Commonwealth Universities, on Action-to-Research on climate change, we delivered a two day module to four cohorts (Common Futures Climate Research Cohort).

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