This is partly explained by the small private sector and the failure to match the skills needed in the economy. Thus it is a key challenge affecting tertiary and university education in Uganda. Corruption tendencies. The resources of some higher education institutions and universities and universities have been diversified for personal gain by some staff, this affects the effectiveness of the institutions interns of service provision to students to support their academics.
As the resources earmarked for specific projects are swindled and mismanaged which results into project failure. The salaries paid to the staff in higher institutions of education in Uganda are still very low compared to those in other countries. Due this lecturers and tutors tend to dodge lectures since most have other jobs in big institutions and companies to supplement the meager salaries which cannot cater for their needs.
Chacha NC Hiring inadequate staff. According to Conan Businge , most tertiary institutions and universities in Uganda operate at a deficit staff numbers. This resulted into poor academic performance on the side of academic staff and poor service delivery to all the stakeholders of these institutions including the students. In addition the recent reports show that the overall staff to student ratio for all universities was but those of Makerere and Kyambogo both public universities and Nkumba were unacceptably high.
Meanwhile, although a number of studies of tertiary unit costs have been done, the government has not come up with an agreed tertiary unit cost or agreed to recognize any of the known studies of unit costs to inform its budgetary allocations. This is therefore a challenge to higher tertiary institutions and universities in Uganda. Bureaucracy in these institutions.
Tendencies of bureaucracies are a major characteristics of the higher education in Uganda. The result of such a tendency is the difficulty to access the higher education.
Students who qualify for higher education cannot all access admission due to bureaucracies involved in the admission process. Therefore this is a key impoundment to higher education in the country. Relevance of higher education. This is basically due to the rampant duplication of courses especially by illegitimate and illegal institutions.
This is due to the fact that, graduates from institutions of higher learning in Uganda experience both a high rate of unemployment and underemployment due to programs and courses that are not relevant to the job market. This is basically because higher tertiary institutions have failed to review programmes, retrain staff, re-equip workshops and laboratories, and procure new books and other learning materials, thus a key challenge affecting the higher tertiary and university education in Uganda.
Insecurity in and around tertiary and universities. Insecurity is another key challenge affecting higher education in Uganda. Most of these institutions and universities have attracted large numbers of people who have settled around them. This has resulted in slums due to overcrowding of people in small pieces of land which act as dens of thugs who attack students.
Insecurity within and outside university is based, with many cases of students killed or injured especially those who go home after p. Students property is stolen at the university especially laptops. UNCHE's main role is to license new universities and other institutions of higher learning in Uganda.
The agency is also responsible for monitoring the performance of the institutions that it licenses, to ensure that they maintain the standards, if satisfactory, and remedy those aspects, where improvement is needed. From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core. Jump to: navigation , search. John Opuda-Asibo. The management and provision of basic education is now largely in the hands of the district administration, while the centre remains responsible for policy control and maintenance of standards through control of teacher education, curriculum and examinations.
It can also allow local administrators to be creative in seeking solutions to problems that are unique to their localities. The overall responsibility for development in the education sector lies with the Ministry of Education and Sports MoES , under the leadership of a full Minister of Education assisted by 3 Ministers of State responsible for Primary Education, Higher Education and Sports respectively.
To browse Academia. Log in with Facebook Log in with Google. Remember me on this computer. Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link. Need an account? Click here to sign up. Download Free PDF. Cathy Kabasoka. A short summary of this paper. It also highlights the challenges of blended learning in higher education institutions and goes ahead to make recommendations towards its successful implementation.
As such, blended learning must be aligned to meet the aforementioned educational focus Laurillard, It has been observed with dismay that, traditional physical classes have been the dominant form of knowledge transfer for at least years and the last universal technology in learning, the printed book is over years old Rooney, Consequently, in the past ten years, over ten major new technologies for learning and collaboration have been introduced.
Early experiences with these technologies have uncovered opportunities for profound improvements in quality, effectiveness, convenience and cost of learning experiences. Thus, educational technology experts and others in education today are looking beyond the automation of traditional teaching models to new teaching and learning that are better aligned with the 21st century digital age and deliver measurable results by focusing on what can improve learning rather than the limitation of our resources.
It offers an opportunity to fundamentally re-think how to design and deliver learning programs. The use of e-technologies in education has received tremendous attention over the last few years and the desire for it is likely to increase even more as the demand for teaching students efficiently and effectively continues to grow. Customizable e- learning application and high speed internet browsing on individual or small group levels are leading to a more interesting, more in-depth, more personalized learning experience that is a major factor in increasing student performance.
Only now that educators are beginning to understand how learning experiences will evolve to exploit blended combinations of both traditional technology based learning methods and how blended learning can have a strategic impact on our educational system. Leaders in the field of education lend support that e-learning technologies can effectively respond to accelerating global competition, increase the quality of learning experiences, remove situational barriers and be more system effective Daniel, In support of this, Rooney, notes that the need for pedagogical re-design with students recast in the role of socially active and collaborative learners so that they are engaged in sense making through internal reflection and external dialogue in both formal and informal learning activities.
From to present, BL has been understood as a combination of face to face and technology mediated instructional form and practices Graham, Over the last decades, our classrooms have been enshrined with the use of chalk and talk teaching, contrary to the country we are in. Hence, an alternative to traditional teaching and learning contrary to the century we are in. Consequently, the traditional teaching approach is fading away in the pace of time.
Developments in the e-technologies have emerged as a new landscape in educational delivery system where physical and virtual environments are blended to support or supplement learning, increase access, convenience and greater cost effectiveness.
Learning is an inherently social process, where different strategies for its effectiveness can be implemented Strobl, At present, there are several e-learning technologies available Garrison, Many of these address mobility of student learning, which enables students to learn anywhere, anytime and with various devices Herrington, They include learning management systems providing a virtual platform for students to access teaching resources and interact with peers and other students, web based flexible learning environments, and media to encourage collaborative learning among students.
In regard to developing technological skills, a wide range of technologies can be used to assist in training students. These can range from videos for demonstration, recording and reflective analysis purpose to simulation based e-learning systems. Learning is becoming more focused around the use of computers and modern communications. Central to the e-learning approaches are learning management systems LMS such as the black board, academic suite that administer web-based learning activities Garrison, Already common in many HEIs, LMS are used to assist in the delivery and management of learning related material, such as course notes, lecture recordings, e- assessments and discussion fora, to mention but a few.
Like other web based technologies, the advantage of LMS is their continuous availability from any location given access to the internet. LMS can be used for both the delivery of fully online courses as well as the enhancement of traditional face to face classroom teaching. The world of education has largely begun to embrace the potential of modern technology at times lurching forward trying to find its balance as it strives to fulfil its purpose in the world where the very meaning of successful teaching and learning seems untethered.
Given the explosion of knowledge about how the brain works, the impact of environments, how learning occurs, to mention but a few with waves of technological tools being developed and released which claim to exploit the latest insights into learning.
Penetration of online technology has presented previously unheard of opportunities and further fostered this perception. It appears that institutions are increasingly recognising that the move towards the integration of technology is obvious and most apparent through the creation of blended courses. Less prevalent but practically increasing is the expanding literature on BL, a segment encapsulated within the field of educational technology.
When looking into specific areas of technology application, such as academic development programmes, the literature dwindles even further. Garrison discusses the potential of technology being favourably employed in helping to solve current dilemmas in education.
Authors like Kanuka argue that BL is an approach to teaching and learning that has emerged from the growing potential of technology to become the central cog in HE than the other modes of technology based learning, such as online learning laboratories, or e-learning approaches. The suggestion is that, the face to face component must be retained in a balance with more technology directed learning.
BL has been found to be a viable and effective approach to deliver high quality up to date, on demand learning solutions in the face of diminishing education budgets. Though it has been established that BL approach fails to produce the intended results because administrators, instructors and learners are lacking in the relevant technical, methodological or organizational knowledge experience.
Equally, an argument could be put forward that technology is not the king pin around which BL revolves, but that any blend of methods, tools and other influencing factors could constitute BL. The concept of BL grew out of the successes and failures of e-learning. The e-learning experiences were simply not good enough Allen, The quality of instrumental design was at fault. Huang suggested three central characteristics which were; flexibility in the provision of learning resources, supporting learning diversity and the enrichment of learning experience.
In other words, the teacher is one of the central figures in bringing the best out of a learning experience whether using technology, blending the learning or going with the traditional face to face approach.
In typical BL, flexibility allows for synchronous and asynchronous availability of teaching and learning opportunities with diversity catering for learning styles while the resources are provided through viral learning environments.
The face to face portion is conducted in an instructor led classroom while the on-line learning portion could be provided as synchronous online chat or video conferencing or asynchronous online discussion boards, tutorials, self- assessment, electronic tests and e-mails.
The former design, is self-paced, student centred and offers the student learning materials BL combines multiple delivery media that are designed to complement each other. BL can take many forms. In one course, a teacher may assign weekly self-paced online modules to a group of learners and also periodically bring the group together for in-person sessions, presentations and group discussions.
Another BL program may bring together a menu of on-line reading materials, self-paced tutorials allowing learners to choose the mode that best fits their learning style and then demonstrate their understanding of the materials by completing an online assessment. Commonly based on written materials and videos, is the concept of flip teaching. This approach of BL replaces the traditional face to face classroom lectures. It is a form of active and collaborative learning Prince, In flipped teaching, students are provided with learning materials such as course notes and videos of lectures to prepare themselves for the classroom and practical activities.
Instead of traditional passive teaching in the classroom, teachers can focus more on specific questions and or problems raised by tutors and the students that promote or reinforce the targeted subject outcomes. The concept of flip teaching has been trailed successfully in some surveying units. Here, students are actively involved in addressing questions, debating and finding solutions to problems that address the desired learning outcomes.
According to the assessment and teaching of the 21st century skills Griffin, , collaborative learning is an important skill. It directly addresses some of the generic skills such as problem solving, critical thinking and communication. Much as it is not a new concept, it recently gained a new dimension with computer assisted methodologies such as the use of web technologies, LMS and social media.
Today, this process is becoming more computer assisted and so allows collaboration to take place without any face to face contact. This now means that social media is becoming of particular importance in facilitating the exchange of user generated content and online discussions.
A successful blended learning strategy needs to take contextual factors such as prevailing learning culture into account and address and deal with possible resistance to change on the part of all stake holders. Educators and trainers coming from a traditional teaching background often find it difficult to integrate ICT and expand their methodological repertoire to meaningfully combine learning activities during the face to face learning Welker, They tend to resist changing the established and proven instructional patterns unless they have experienced the possibilities of alternative methodologies for themselves.
Online learning is pervading HE, compelling educators to confront existing assumptions of teaching and learning in HE. Indeed, leaders of HE are challenged to position their institutions to meet the connectivity demands of prospective students and meet growing expectations and demands for high quality learning experiences and outcomes.
Transformation of learning environments in HE settings for an increasingly electronic world is critical to ensure that the benefits are fully realized William, There are demands for universities to provide for a larger and more diverse cross section of the population, to cater for emerging patterns on educational involvement, which facilitate lifelong learning and to include technology based practices in the curriculum.
A source of this transformation stems from the ability of online learners to be both together and apart and to be connected to a community of learners anytime and anywhere without being time, place or situation bound. The increasingly prevalent practice of the convergence of the text based asynchronous interest based learning with face to face approaches is having a volatile impact on traditional campus based institutions of HE.
The convergence of classroom and online education is the single greatest unrecognized trend in HE today. BL is an effective and low risk strategy which positions universities for the onslaught of technological development that will be forthcoming in the next few years.
As society and technology fundamentally alter the manner in which we communicate and learn, this inevitably, this inevitably alters how we think. This is driven further by the expectation placed on HE to meet the need for intellectual talent.
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