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Advance HE to host webinar in partnership with Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education and the University of Zimbabwe

05 May 2021 | Advance HE Webinar on 13 May will bring together speakers from across the world to discuss online learning and assessment in life and health sciences.

Advance HE is to host a webinar focusing on online learning techniques and their effectiveness in the life and health sciences. Hosted in partnership with the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education (ZIMCHE) and the University of Zimbabwe, the ‘Best Practices of Online Learning in Life and Health Science Programmes’ webinar brings together speakers from the University of Zimbabwe with others from across the global higher education sector to share and discuss the experiences and challenges of online learning in life sciences. 

Due to the global pandemic, the past year has seen a massive rise in online and remote learning, something which was completely alien to many HE teaching professionals. This transition inevitably led to challenges and lessons being learned about the best way to conduct remote learning sessions to maintain teaching effectiveness. The practical and clinical nature of life and health science teaching adds another layer of complexity to an already difficult transition. 

This webinar seeks to share the lessons learned with the global HE sector along with practical examples of conducting clinical teaching sessions and assessments remotely. 

Speakers include Dr Gwen Kandawasvika and Dr Ian Machingura from the University of Zimbabwe, Professor Bill Burdick from Drexel University, Pennsylvania, USA and Azra Naseem, Associate Director, Blended and Digital Learning Network at the Aga Khan University, Pakistan, along with Advance HE’s Assistant Director of Knowledge, Innovation and Delivery, Kathy Wright. 

The session will focus on the rationale for the shift to online teaching and learning, experiences with planning and conducting synchronous and asynchronous sessions, practical examples for conducting online clinical teaching and assessments and the challenges that the transition presented to teaching staff and students alike. 

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected, [both] negatively and positively, the higher education sector globally. For us in Zimbabwe, it is now time to re-think the way we think and co-construct our pedagogical discourse practices [in order to] make use of the affordances of [technology] in enhancing a deeper and new architecture of learning and teaching, [as well as] how we assess and examine students remotely and innovatively.

“Our reform efforts should focus on, inter alia, changing the genetic code of the university inside-out, and outside-in at the same time so that we can re-imagine the post pandemic higher education form and function. Digital and analytics transformation should be part and parcel of this higher education reform effort.”

Prof Kuzvinetsa P. Dzvimbo, CEO of ZIMCHE

The Best Practices of Online Learning in Life and Health Science Programmes webinar takes place on 13 May at 15.00 CAT/14.00 GMT. Find out more and book your place here

Author:

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