Academic Staff of the Distance Learning Institute (DLI) at the University of Lagos have begun a 4-day workshop on Capacity Building Workshop on Online Teaching Competencies.

The blended (onsite & online) event started on Monday, February 20, 2023 at the DLI Boardroom with an Opening Ceremony.

Director of the Institute, Professor Uchenna Udeani, in her Welcome Address, informed participants that the workshop was designed to sharpen their digital competencies for online and distant learning education deliveries. She urged them to maximise the opportunity and let it translate to better pedagogy in the Institute.

One of the Facilitators of the Workshop, the Director of the Regional Training and Research Institute for Distance and Open Learning (RETRIDOL) at the National Open University (NOUN), Professor Christine Ofulue challenged participants to be open to the mindset shift that online teaching requires. She also urged them to recognise that the principles of Distance Learning and their application underpin all forms of online learning.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Folasade Ogunsola, FAS, was also present to declare the event open. She commended the DLI leadership for constantly organising training workshops for its staff.

Her words: “This is the kind of workshops that we want at the University of Lagos. If we are going to move our university forward, I believe that we will have to invest in changing the mindsets of our faculty as regards digital competencies. The speed at which knowledge is created and goes out of currency now makes it imperative that we go beyond what is taught to the utility of what is taught for the student and the society as a whole. That is the only way we can do our students justice”.

The workshop is facilitated for the Institute by the Regional Training and Research Institute for Distance and Open Learning (RETRIDOL) and the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), Canada. It is a follow-up on a workshop on Instructional Design earlier organised in 2021.