The year 2020 has been one of the most engaging years in online presence for Skyline University Nigeria (SUN). From designing courses with opportunities for students and faculty to engage meaningfully with materials and each other to conduct seminars, training, webinars and other online activities that have helped maintain students’ motivation amidst the lockdown, the university is committed to ensuring there are clear purposes and outcomes for any student-to-student interaction to meet course outcomes.
It is noteworthy that Skyline University Nigeria had in the last 4 months since the lockdown improved on her Information Technology exposures with students of the university. The private institution of higher learning which made her debut in the National Universities Commission (NUC’s) listings in 2018, had since taken a giant step to overcome the slow pace at which students develops IT skills through online engagement.
Some of these online activities recorded to have increased the overall exposure of students in IT skills include virtual learning – perceive by management as a key factor in predicting online course successes; Online seminars for entrepreneurship, industry update, sports, training etc; Online webinar amongst foreign institutions; Online competitions; MoU signing with local and foreign institutions of higher learning; Online International conferences, etc. Recent activities in the university, as well as feedbacks, showed that Skyline University Nigeria improved in her online activities.
Skyline University Nigeria has also been beautifully praised in helping students to build accountability for the work they do in any discussions or collaborations. Assigning points for discussion posts reflecting in students’ reports with detail of their contributions and what they learned from the conversation, the university has provided students with options to post a summary of their work.
The virtual learning environment may be new to some students of Skyline University Nigeria, but the university has with all certainty, established clear guidance to students by providing them with a clear purpose for collaborative online activities which in turn has helped keep group discussion and behaviour professional.