The University of Guyana continues to extend the closure of its campuses, with a new reopening date set for June 1.
The University of Guyana’s Turkeyen Campus
In an issued statement, the administration noted that students continue to face challenges in accessing lectures online. Initially, the institution had proposed a reopening of May 6, but owing to the progression of the COVID-19 curve, this date was changed.
Presently, some 30 measures were taken to enhance hygienic practices on campus for when physical sessions commence. Additionally, they have sought to expand the range of communication mediums to offer better online engagements.
“Despite challenges, the University has never stopped working. It has taken about 30 key measures in the last six weeks to help promote the importance of hygiene and safety and improve its capacity to deliver online. These range from addressing the physical risks by rapidly producing prevention protocols, including producing its own sanitisers, to installing sinks and sanitisation bays, to rolling out a slew of communication tools and applications to enhance the online experience,” the statement read.
Meanwhile, the institution has created an internal task force to support its online system, along with integrating other devices on their teaching platform Moodle.
“Moodle was also integrated with plagiarism software for each student and the entity is about to test an online proctoring software data from which may help to solve a long-term question of how to address online examinations. Additionally, 50 negotiated emergency cellphone plans were accessed from a local cellphone provider and given to all essential staff to work remotely from their homes. Policy and conditions of use were developed and these numbers were published on UG’s website.”
In order to test the experience of using these new tools, the University of Guyana’s Transitional Management Committee (TMC) deployed experience surveys (5000 respondents) and produced two reports. The institution is set to share the data in an online forum “Education after nCoV19” with other educational establishments. Nevertheless, while these tools are available, they are still to tackle the issue of accessibility for all students.
The “Education after nCoV 19” report will be released Tuesday, May 12, via Zoom from 15:00h. Two online Turkeyen and Tain Talks will also be held on May 7 and May 14.
On March 11, the entity officially announced that it would start working in safe mode and would move its operations online as far as possible, for as long as the nCoV19 threat continued.
“The University has since been grappling with the challenges of how to keep its staff and students safe, while continuing to fulfil its national mandate as the nation’s premier tertiary level academic institution,” it later added.
