Nakuru CBD Embraces best lecturing practices.
Teaching staff from all the campuses of JKUAT converged at Nakuru CBD for a two day pedagogy Training session. About 100 lecturers were trained in the areas of preparing teaching tools, class management, setting of examinations, administering and awarding scoring of marks. The training took place 5th and 6th day of August 2014.
While opening the training, the Registrar, Academic affairs of the University; Mr. A Kamau, thanked the lecturers for coming to share their teaching experiences. He told the participants that the training was organized in response to an analysis from lecturers evaluation reports received from students. They had reported that although some lecturers had the mastery of their respective areas of teaching, they lacked class management and communication skills. There had been complaints related to setting of end of semester examinations in terms of structuring and wording the test items.
The Deputy Director of the campus, Mr. Matoke acknowledged that really, there was a problem of receiving quality examinations from some lecturers, a situation which has forced him, at times to reject some examination drafts on the basis of question content and construct validity. He advised the participants to practice what they will learn as a way to continuous improvement.
While closing the training, the Director of JKUAT Nakuru CBD, advised the trainees that in the teaching profession there was nothing like part time lecturers since all lecturers, irrespective of their position, contributes to intellectual mentoring of the same student. He said that he was concerned that some lecturers even introduce themselves as part-time lecturers to the students, a situation that students are not able to comprehend during the learning process. He reported that the campus had acquired a new building and starting September 2014, some of the classes will be held in the new premises. The training was also attended by Prof. Sigei the Director Kisii Campus among others.
By Josphat Kwasira and Carolyne Kinyanjui
DVC (AA) hails the campus students Thesis presentation.
The University DVC (AA) Prof Odhiambo has praised Nakuru CBD students for quality presentation of their Masters thesis. Prof Odhiambo was part of the panel members who saw 42 Masters Students presenting their final thesis. He advised the students to appreciate statistics even if they are in social sciences since they must analyze the collected data for decision making. He said that he had noted in most papers that students were stating null Hypothesis and yet best practice in research was to state the alternative Hypothesis. He told the students that research was no longer a classroom unit; but an intellectual movement that cuts across all the academic disciplines. He informed the group that the University Academics office ranks Nakuru Campus highly due to the way it manages and implements the University academics programs.
He discussed in the meeting the various courses the Campus offers. The DVC suggested introduction of some new courses e.g. PhD. In Leadership and Governance, Msc. in engineering such as Master of Science in Civil Engineering (Water Resources), BSc. Business Computing, Bsc. in Criminology and Security and Certificate in Information Technology fundamentals, considering the Campus had resources required to handle the same. He challenged the management to ensure a student population of 4,000 from the current population of about 2,600 is achieved in the subsequent year.
By Kepha Matoke and Daniel Wanyoike
Nakuru CBD Library, a Role Model
The Deputy Vice Chancellor visited the Library facility and commended the staff for having one of the most organized libraries. He noted that the books available (total of 1,440) were short loan ones, which is limiting. He lauded the Campus which is in collaboration with Kenya National Library Service, where they pay a meagre fee of Ksh. 3, 000 per year to collect and return after use an unlimited number of books which students request for at the Campus. The Campus also indemnifies the students to use the National Library services for studies, thus providing opportunities to our students to access a vast wealth of information. He promised to sell the handy idea to other campuses.
By Josphat Kwasira and Carolyne Kinyanjui