Education for a Digital World Advice, Guidelines and Effective Practice from Around Globe, 2008a

3 – Challenges Confronted and Lessons (Un)Learned
(http://www.etw.org/2003/case_studies/soc_inc_africa_
VU.htm) .
From August 2007 to October 2007, Patrick and I
tried a number of course delivery systems, notably
Adobe Connect, Elluminate, and Yugma. We tried Adobe
Connect first, because Kwantlen University College has
just purchased a licence for it. Unfortunately, we had a
hell of time with it. In fact, about half of the trial period
was spent on Adobe Connect. Most of the time, I could
hear and see Patrick. However, he could hear and see me
some times, but other times he could not. There was
constant feedback and delays in the audio transmission.
At this stage, I decided to “hit” the Internet, sending
blind messages asking for suggestions. It was through
one such blind message that I got in touch with Sandy
Hirtz of BCCampus, who offered not only to be my
course assistant gratis, but also offered her Elluminate
virtual meeting room for the course. Prior to that,
LearningTimes.org had awarded me its Global Collaboration
Grant, which consisted of one Member Office
with a capacity of 25 users. In addition, Elluminate, a
web-conferencing company offered me a four-month
free trial and training beginning in May 2007.
The near miss
After frantic efforts throughout the summer, after my
return from Ghana, to link up with my collaborator, Dr.
Senah, Dr. Akosua Darkwah also of the Sociology Department
of UGL, was suggested as a replacement. Dr.
Senah had been quite busy teaching and also attending
conferences in Europe. My several emails and phone
calls were not returned. My attempt to seek my colleagues
input in crafting the course syllabus proved futile.
When all seemed to be lost, I managed to reach Dr.
Senah, eventually. He then suggested I contacted Dr.
Darkwah, who he said teaches a graduate course in
Globalization. This was mid-December 2007. Thankfully,
Dr. Darkwah readily accepted the challenge. Her
biggest headache was how to get in touch with her 12
graduate students, who because of the closure of the
UGL due to the African Cup of Nations Soccer Tournament,
were scattered all over the country. In the end,
with dodged determination, she managed to get six of
the students to enroll in the course. Had Dr. Darkwah
not agreed at the last moment to team up with me, the
project would have been a non-starter, and for this I am
deeply indebted to her.
THE COURSE WEBSITE AND “BELLS AND
WHISTLES”
Concurrently, Information and Educational Technology
(IET) Department was building course website on
Moodle for the project. Meg Goodine of IET was a consultant
for the project. She assigned Sue Birthwell of IET
to assist the University of Ghana Online Collaborative
Learning Project in the following ways:
• Production of course (i.e., identifying and engineering
course content for digital delivery format)
• Administration of tech support for faculty, students;
• Maintenance of course (content management)
• Administration of delivery of course from KUC to
Ghana using course management system (Elluminate)
• Consultation, training: faculty preparation for online
teaching and course facilitation
Course format
The class met twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays.
The instructors lectured on Thursday and devote Monday
to laboratory work, where students complete assignments,
held discussions, and conducted collaborative
research for their group projects. The labs were supervised
by the course assistants—Kaelan Wong at the
KUC site, Patrick Kuti at UGL, and Sandy Hirtz at a
“virtual site.”
Course requirements and
evaluation
Exams covered class lectures and discussions, assigned
readings, and audio-visual presentations. There were
two take-home exams—a mid-term and a final.
Quizzes
Three quizzes were given over the course of the semester.
The quizzes were short tests that primarily evaluated
students’ retention of readings. Students took the quizzes
online in the course of the day, in their free time.
The quizzes were activated from 08:00 A.M. until 23:55
P.M. (PT). The quizzes, which comprised multiplechoice
and true-or-false questions and short questions,
were for only the Kwantlen University College students.
Dr. Darkwah gave her graduate students replacement
assignments, commensurate with their level.
36 Education for a Digital World