With the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic’s spread in Ghana forcing normal academic activities to a halt on various campuses, some of the nation’s tertiary institutions have arranged to have studies continued online.
The University of Ghana, Legon, has adopted such a measure, using its Sakai Learning Management System (LMS). That decision has gone down well with many, but the University of Ghana Medical School (UGMS) has expressed reservations regarding the system’s structure and essence to the peculiar nature of its academic work.
While admitting that the arrangement would suffice for students in the first three years of medical school, the UGMS — in a release addressed to the university’s Pro-Vice Chancellor and copied to other authorities — pointed out how ill-suited the program would be in the case of “clinical-year students where a majority of the course work is based on interaction with patients and clinical examination.”
Signed by Christian Armah, President of the UGMS, the statement goes on to question how students who have dispersed to their various homes around the country — and even beyond — would enjoy fair, equal, and quality access to the Internet service required to facilitate any tuition that would be provided on the Sakai LMS platform, while also raising genuine concerns about whether the E-learning course factors in the regular academic timetable of the body’s various clinical groups.
“In conclusion,” the letter ends, “we implore the University management to take into account the clinical nature of our course in the preparation of the E-learning program . . . as well as the structures that will be put in place to tackle the challenges raised above.”
Attached below is a downloadable copy of the UGMS’ release:
Source: Daily Mail GH
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