Approach

Approach

The MSc in Research Methodology is a regional programme initiated and housed by Jomo Kenyatta University, Kenya though the primary ownership of the programme lies within the consortium of RUFORUM universities. The governance and management structure of the training programme will have a Steering committee (SC) as the top decision making body and a project coordinator to oversee programme activities and link with RUFORUM and other universities within the region to support the programme activities. In this regard, the SC will identify and contract resource persons to develop modules and other learning materials. It is important that two resource persons are contracted per course and encouraged to exchange their module drafts for coherence. It is also proposed that SC widely circulates the modules to other members of RUFORUM universities through web-based tools for continuous review and updating. The final module drafts will also be subjected to review by a quality assurance team in line with the course descriptions and in accordance to the general principles established by the SC.

The MSc training program is unique in that it employs a modular teaching approach and envisage the use of virtual classrooms for effective teaching. The teaching of the proposed courses requires a creative alternative training approach that does not require the physical presence of students and instructors through face to face sessions. The creative alternative training approaches envisaged in this action are virtual class environments where teachers and students interact and share experiences through use of web-based tools and techniques. To achieve this however, academic staff within the region needs to be re-oriented and or introduced to the use and relevance of web-based tools to teaching in higher education. In order to this, the project will design and implement a comprehensive Web 2.0 tools training workshop in a Training of Trainers (TOT) format as a strategy to prepare academic staff to facilitate virtual classrooms.