Wawasan Open Unversity (WOU) co-hosted a three-day Commonwealth of Learning (COL) workshop for tutors from seven countries at its main campus.
The international tutor training workshop on ‘Case Based Teaching in Open Distance Learning (ODL)’ was attended by about 25 delegates from Pakistan, Ghana, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Guyana, Papua New Guinea, and Malaysia.
The purpose of the workshop was to help tutors and course coordinators use case studies more effectively as a teaching tool in their tutorial sessions and in their course delivery, including assessment.
PROF RAVI SHANKER CONDUCTS THE WORKSHOP.
The workshop was facilitated by Prof Dr Ravi Shanker, a COL consultant, and by former WOU Professor and Director of Centre for Graduate Studies, Prof Madhulika Kaushik, currently a COL Education Specialist for Higher Education. It was targeted primarily at tutors handling the Commonwealth Executive MBA or Commonwealth Executive Master of Public Administration programmes.
HANDS-ON LEARNING FOR PARTICIPANTS ON HOW TO DEVELOP EFFECTIVE TEACHING NOTES AND CASES.
According to Prof Ravi Shanker, integrating case studies into the curriculum will take students “closer to the corporate realities”. He added, “Otherwise they are restricted to textbook learning. They write exams, get grades. At the end of the day, we produce only mediocre MBA graduates who are not resourceful enough to meet the needs and expectations of the industry.”
He shared that case studies can be text or video-based, with videos often much more lively, interactive and evoking greater interest in students than written case studies.
Meanwhile Prof Madhulika said that COL, through this workshop, wanted to develop the tutors’ capacity in using cases in the ODL environment and to enable tutors to strengthen the learners’ ability in applying and analysing case studies.
At the workshop, the participants learnt hands-on how to develop effective teaching notes and cases for teaching and assessment, and how to use a case in class to solve a problem or understand a specific given concept.
WOU VICE CHANCELLOR PROF WONG TAT MENG (CENTRE) WITH PROF MADHULIKA KAUSHIK AND PROF RAVI SHANKER.
Earlier in his welcome address on the first day, WOU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Wong Tat Meng stated that “tutorial support is an integral component of the learner support that quality ODL institutions provide”.
The delegates of the workshop came from institutions like Allama Iqbal Open University, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, National Open University of Nigeria, Open University of Sri Lanka, University of Guyana, University of Papua New Guinea, and WOU.
