The classrooms, christened the ‘Shanghai Love Classroom’ will be equipped with advanced technology equipment to bolster distance learning. One classroom will be set up on the Mombasa campus and on the main campus in Uasin Gishu County.

Shang Yuying, Vice Secretary General of Shanghai Municipal People’s Government, said during the launch of a digital classroom at the Moi University Mombasa campus that Donghua University and Moi have shared a long-standing partnership since 1950, where the China-based university recruited international students.

‘Smart classrooms provide a very vital platform for digital education. People from everywhere in the world are now focusing on the possibility of distance learning, and I know Moi University has been a forerunner in this field for the past decade,’ said Yuying.

She noted that since 2016, they have been establishing digital classrooms with many partners in several countries, including Moi University, where a Confucius Institute for textile engineering and fashion desi
gn was launched in 2015.

‘We would love to make use of the equipment donated by the Shanghai government to even strengthen that platform and make it do more. Together, we can make a difference,’ she stated.

The Vice Secretary General of the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government said that through their cooperation with Moi University, they have collaborated on student cultivation, research collaboration, and people-to-people exchange.

The Confucius Institute at Moi University (CIMU) provides essential skills in textiles and apparel. Yuying says Chinese setting up industries in the country will benefit from skilled workers.

‘They need both of us to train talents for working effectively in those industries. We would love to develop research collaborations and, on top of that, a Centre of Excellence to reinforce collaboration between Chinese and Kenyan people,’ said Yuying.

Moi University Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof. Isaac Kosgey, said the smart classroom would enhance teaching and learning experiences with
students and faculties.

‘Smart classrooms are a technology platform where we offer content to learners virtually,’ said the VC, adding that plans were underway to teach Chinese using the smart classrooms.

‘We are into distance learning as an institution. We want to get education to everybody within Kenya and in the region for those who are interested in our programmes,’ he added.

To tap into the youths who are interested in learning virtually, the university mulls the setting up of smart classrooms on all five campuses. ‘Going forward, we will be rolling out smart classrooms throughout our campuses,’ said VC Kosgey.

Moi University Director of the Institute of Open and Distance E-Learning, Prof. Masibo Lumala, said they were keen to institutionalise the use of technology in teaching and learning and also go further and offer examinations online.

‘We want to open smart classrooms to the communities around us. We don’t want to restrict it to our students. We want people who are working in the dock and in th
e tourism sector to be able to learn Chinese so that they can interact easily with their counterparts within their business where Chinese is spoken. We will teach other languages as well,’ said Prof. Lumala.

‘We want to leverage on technology as a university to go an extra mile,’ he added.

Source: Kenya News Agency