Launching of the online courses at TUDARCo

The first ever online short courses were launched at Tumaini University Dar es Salaam College (TUDARCo) through the SUSIE project on the 17th of February. The launching which was accompanied by a short orientation training to some of the prospective students on how to use Moodle platform, was official done by the Director for Quality Assurance of TUDARCo Dr. James Kazoka.

Addressing the audience that was composed of students, Academic staff and SUSIE project team members, Dr. Kazoka said, for learners of today, online learning is no longer an option, but a must. He said the current global trends are forcing academic institutions towards that direction.

The citing example of the COVID pandemic and how it disrupted the conventional learning mode, Dr. Kazoka said that it is high time for learning institutions especially in Africa to for the blended mode as they will complement each other. He commended the initiatives of the SUSIE project  that have made it possible for TUDARCo to launch the first online short courses. He also commended the management of TUDARCo for the support rendered to the project and particularly for customizing and putting Moodle in place.

TUDARCo launched three courses in two phases of operation. The first phase includes two courses namely Screenwriting and Intellectual Property Rights for music and film works. The course duration is eight and seven weeks respectively. At the second phase will be a course on Brand Management which will run for eight weeks. The two courses running in the first phase have managed to register 181 students!

SUSIE project members who participated in preparing the courses explained about the wonderful experience they have acquired as they were preparing the online courses. Albert Mhina, one teacher of the online short courses at TUDARCo, teaching a short course on Intellectual Property Rights, said that through the acquired knowledge he can design some courses. However, he declared that more training is required to make trainers more competent. The SUSIE project has heard the demand and will respond on that asap!