Context


 * Context of Kyambogo University Distance Education**

Distance education also known as correspondence study in Uganda dates far back to the colonial era. By 1957 correspondence study was provided by missionaries to civil servants in preparation for examinations in English that led to the award of the Cambridge school certificate (Binns & Otto, 2006). After independence, a lot of emphasis was laid on full time education in schools, technical colleges and universities which sidelined distance education. The situation also gave a negative perception about distance education as that for school dropouts. Further still the political instabilities that followed in 1966, 1971 1986 affected the momentum of distance education in the country leading to its collapse between 1962 to 1985.

 Distance education resurrected again after the National Resistance Government took over power in 1986 and liberalized the economy and social services. This led to the establishment of more private schools, thus creating job opportunities and encouraging many citizens to train as teachers through the distance mode so as to meet the high demand of graduate teachers in the country. This task was coordinated by Institute of Teacher Education Kyambogo (ITEK) which was combined with Uganda polytechnic and elevated to a university in 2001.

**Organization of Distance Education program in Kyambogo University ** Kyambogo University has since 2001 increased student enrollment into distance education to increase the number of qualified graduate teachers in the country and to increase its revenue from tuition paid by students.

The distance education program conducts face to face sessions three times a year during school holidays. Each session usually lasts two weeks scheduled around December - January, April – May and August – September depending on the school holiday calendar. Students study and go back to their duty stations with all assignments to be done and submitted at the coordinating office.

Two contact face-to-face in an academic year are dedicated for final examinations that must be done at the main university or at a coordinating center. The programme duration is three years like any other under graduate teacher education program in the country. Due the proportion of the score (30%) for continuous assessment, less attention is given to the tasks for continuous assessment compared to final examinations (70%) awarded for end of year examinations. An online intervention shall enable the teacher help student's improve performance during the writing process before the final submission.

References Binns, F & Otto, A. (2006). Quality Assurance in Open Distance Education - Towards a Culture of Quality: A case study from the Kyambogo University Uganda. Available at http://www.col.org/sitecollectionDocuments/ps-QA_QA_web.pdf. Lat accessed on 15th/Sept/2011

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