General
Mak Receives Donation of E-learning Equipment from NITA-U
The Vice Chancellor, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe and Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic Affairs)-DVCAA, Dr. Umar Kakumba on Tuesday 13th April, 2021 received a donation of equipment to support e-Learning from the Executive Director (ED) National Information Technology Authority-Uganda (NITA-U), Dr. Hatwib Mugasa and Huawei Technologies Uganda Managing Director, Mr. Gaofei Gavin. The equipment which included fifteen laptops and two Huawei IdeaHub S 65-inch Smart Boards worth UGX 300million will support operations of the Institute of Open, Distance and e-Learning (IODeL).
Delivering the opening remarks, the Director, Directorate for ICT Support (DICTS). Mr. Samuel Mugabi appreciated NITA-U for the timely donation, noting that as the University continues to implement Online, Distance and e-Learning, more support for technological innovation would be required.
“We are moving into the era of Education 4.0 where advanced technology and innovation are basic requirements and this donation will boost the efforts of our Institute of Open, Distance and e-Learning” remarked the Director DICTS.
He also prayed that this would be the beginning of further collaboration with NITA-U in areas such as lowering the cost of institutional bandwidth, cybersecurity among others.
In his remarks, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe reiterated that the Makerere University Strategic Plan (2020-2030) stipulates the need to transform into a 21st century University with four goals. “One of these goals outlines innovations in teaching and learning especially the move of University programmes to the ODeL platform. This is our thrust as Makerere.”
With the ‘new normal’ dictated by the COVID-19 pandemic, Prof. Nawangwe added that the donation was timely as it boosts the operationalisation of e-Learning at Makerere University. “COVID-19 has pushed us to move faster in the quest to translate our programmes into e-Learning modules and as a result, our Institute of Open, Distance and e-Learning has become a model for other institutions to benchmark.”
Prof. Nawangwe thanked ED NITA-U for the major boost to ODeL, noting that the equipment will enable the College of Education and External Studies (CEES) to advance e-learning, e-teaching, e-supervision, e-research, e-monitoring of teaching among other functionalities.
Handing over the high-tech equipment, Dr. Hatwib Mugasa said the donation was testimony to NITA-U’s readiness to support the University in the realization of its strategic vision of becoming a 21st century University. “Makerere is recognized as a Centre of Excellence the world over and when I was approached by our development partners with equipment for donation, the first place I thought of was this institution.”
He thanked the Makerere University under the guidance of the Vice Chancellor for leading the digitization of Uganda’s education sector and for the wealth of knowledge rendered to the NITA-U Board by two staff members thereon. “We are in the process of expanding our Directorate of Planning, Research and Development and will approach you soon for guidance on how we can move forward.”
Following the equipment handover and brief demonstration of the Smart Board features, the DVCAA, Dr. Umar Kakumba noted that the equipment was a great opportunity for Makerere to showcase her readiness to contribute to the National Development Agenda, by implementing innovative teaching and learning responsive to future technological and societal demands.
“The capabilities of this equipment are immense. The setup here at the Multimedia/e-Learning room when implemented across all our ten colleges will greatly enhance the speed at which we generate e-Learning content as well as disseminate it” added the DVCAA.
Representing the Director IODeL, Dr. Jessica Aguti, Dr. Godfrey Mayende expressed extreme gratitude on behalf of the Institute to NITA-U and Huawei for the equipment donation. He thanked the Vice Chancellor, DVCAA and University Management for the support accorded to IODeL that has enabled the Institute to implement its mandate.
“The demand for e-Learning material is still very high and ODeL is here to stay given the ‘new normal’ occasioned by COVID-19. I thank you all for coming to witness this handover ceremony and in particular DICTS for the technical support that has enabled us to conduct our operations smoothly” concluded Dr. Mayende.
By Moses Lutaaya
The Directorate of Graduate Training (DGT) has in collaboration with Centre for Teaching and Learning completed the training of the first cohort of Graduate Supervisors.
Participants were academic staff from two colleges namely, College of Engineering, Art and Design (CEDAT) and the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES).
The three-day training that took place at the Telepresence Centre, Senate Building ended on Friday 20thJune 2025.
In his closing remarks to the participants, the Director of Graduate Training Prof. Julius Kikooma said, “This is the first cohort we are working together with the Center for Teaching and Learning to put together continuous professional development Program so that we are able to enforce the new teaching and learning policy.”
He said that before lecturers are allocated students for supervision, they must first go through this form of formal teaching and learning training to equip them thoroughly with certification required of supervision of graduate students.
“We are coming up with process to ensure that the certificates earned by participants allow you to supervise graduate students. This is the direction of the university and we must ensure that such trainings are concluded and completed successfully by all participants”, Prof. Kikooma.
“We can only have you certified upon completing all the exercises in the training process. This is when you will be eligible to receive the work load for supervision”, He added.
“This training of Supervisors is going to be continuous so that all academic staff in colleges and schools are equipped. This first cohort is going to be our building block to the future trainings in the colleges.”
With such capacity building trainings, Prof. Kikooma said that the university is on the right path to achieving its targets in the new strategic plan of increasing the number of graduate students while progressively reducing the under graduate students.
He further hinted that, “We are in the process of writing a curriculum on this, which will be presented for approval before it is rolled out.”
He echoed all participants to share the knowledge they have acquired adding, “Share all you have learnt, do not keep it. Be open minded, have proper communication channels and the sky will be the limit for you.”
Dr. Robinah N. Kulabako, The Head of Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at CEDAT welcomed the training adding, “This training is very pertinent. I have had the opportunity to supervise Masters and PhD students for over 15 years and I must say that the need to be subjected to this training cannot be over emphasized because there is need to learn, unlearn and relearn many aspects involved in the supervision process.”
She added, “We are moving towards knowledge-based supervision rather than experience-based supervision. This means we must be informed and equipped to be able to advise, guide and mentor to be able to lead a successful supervision journey for both supervisor and supervisee.”
Dr. Andrew Gilbert Were – a lecturer at CEDAT and a participant said, “It is important that all supervisors of graduate students receive this certification from Makerere University through a systematic training process that enables them to attain diverse skills to facilitate learning of graduate students from diverse cultures and with unique set of circumstances.”
“This training is long overdue. In fact, it was an oversight that we could be allowed to supervise students without undergoing supervisors’ training.”
Dr. Dorothy Ssebowa, The Director Centre for Teaching and Learning support- CEES said, “The training this time round has had a mix of early career professionals including Lecturers, Supervisors and Professors share experiences. We have learnt a lot more from experienced supervisors who have shared practices on how they have done supervision over the years.”
“The knowledge and experience-based approaches have made this collaboration very active, interactive and learner centered which has resulted into a collaborative learning from the interdisciplinarity of staff from CEDAT and CAES. The issue now is to continue with professional development across all levels.” She added.
The Makerere University Directorate of Graduate Training (DGT) in collaboration with the Centre for Teaching and Learning completed the training of the first cohort of Graduate Supervisors. This activity was supported by the iCARTA – Institutionalization of Advanced Research Training in Africa, a NORHED II Project at Makerere University.
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