Adoption of e-learning will enhance teacher, student engagement

Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, Deputy Minister of Education, has said the adoption of online teaching and learning will enhance engagement between teachers and students.

He said the option offered students the opportunity to easily connect with teachers outside normal class hours whenever they had challenges in their studies and called for its adoption.

The Deputy Minister of Education said this at the inauguration of the Association of Educational and Instructional Technologists, Ghana (AEITG).

The Association is made up of professionals who design and develop educational curriculum and methods for teaching and learning.

Rev. Fordjour noted that distant and online education had become an alternative and a necessary step to improving educational enrollment, saying, the Ministry would partner all stakeholders in the area to achieve its target of inclusive education.

He said they were pursuing reforms to facilitate e-learning, including building the capacities of teachers in Information and Communication Technology and the provision of laptops to enhance academic work outside the classroom.

Dr Josephine Larbi-Apau, President of AEITG, said the fundamental nature of teaching and learning was changing, therefore, educational institutions needed to align themselves with the change to deliver effective outcomes.

“Educational institutions are, therefore, obliged to deliver learning experiences and outcomes, which can be expressed in the form of changes in behaviour, knowledge or skills,” she said.

Dr Larbi-Apau said they would, with other stakeholders, partner government to develop a policy document to structure online and distant learning in the country.

Online and distant education is taking centre-stage in modern teaching and learning around the world.

This has become the preferred mode of education for students as it gives them the flexibility to access education wherever they are as well as open them up to different cultures of the world.

E-learning is gaining grounds in Ghana after the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020.