University of Port Harcourt

The Centre for Instructional Innovation Technology was born out of a vision incubated by the Vice Chancellor and the present Dean of Education a few years ago. The then Director of the Institute for Petroleum Studies (IPS), Professor Ajeyinka observed that university staff who taught courses at the institute did not utilize modern instructional technologies compared to those that came from Europe and industry.

As the then Director of the university’s Information and Communication Technology Centre (ICTC), the present Dean of Education had a vision to advocate the use of modern instructional technology in the teaching/learning process amongst the academic staff of the University of Port Harcourt. Thus, the meeting of the minds of these two former directors conceived the idea of designing and developing the classroom of the 21^st century in the university. The purpose was to envision an education system that impacts what/how we at the University of Port Harcourt teach, taking cognizance of latest trends and technologies, flexible classrooms, innovative teaching/learning plans and flexible teaching/learning environments in order to implement best practices in teaching with modern instructional technology.

Vision:

Our vision is to build CIIT as an adaptive and responsive centre for developing facilities that inspire learning and place the University of Port Harcourt at the cutting edge of innovative instructional technology.

Mission:

The CIIT will serve as a place where faculty and students can experiment together, try new tools and techniques and develop best pedagogical practices for integrating technology into the teaching/learning process.

To achieve these, the CIIT will:

• Design and develop instructional materials, including those for e-learning and open/distance learning.
• Be a training ground for academic staff in the use of modern technologies of instruction.

Implications:

There should be long-term commitment from the university to guarantee sustainability.  Software procurement and upgrading of equipment will be a regular need of the centre.

• Funds generated from fee payment by students studying under the centre’s open/distance learning mode, as with the university’s college of Continuing education can be ploughed back into the centre.
• The centre can also source funds from donor agencies.

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE

The centre’s activities will be organized under four divisions – The Instructional Design Unit, Course Facilitation Unit, Collaboration Unit, and the Research Unit.

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN:

This unit is headed by an instructional designer.  The Instructional Designer has the responsibility to design  and develop learning experiences. His functions include but are not limited to the following:

• Work with Subject Matter experts to identify what students need to learn
• Develop objectives and ensure content matches those objectives
• Revise and rewrite content to shape it for learning needs
• Structure content and activities for student learning
• Create media to support learning. These include visual and audio materials for face-to-face instruction, various multimedia for e-learning and online instruction.
• Develop assessments based on field tests and actual use feedback.
• Adapt existing resources created for one format to another format, as with adapting materials from face-to-face to e-learning.

COURSE FACILITATION UNIT:

This unit is be headed by an educational technologist/Instructional systems technologist with ICT experience.

• Will work with ICT Consultants to implement ICT in teaching and learning.
• Teach courses on technology integration & instructional techniques to staff & other Clients.
• Assist in-lab users of e-learning during class activities.

COLLABBORATION UNIT:

The function of this unit will include:

• Proposal Writing
• Sourcing Funds
• Implement Innovation and change programmes for industry and Government agencies.

RESEARCH UNIT:

• Conduct/coordinate research on ICT in teaching and learning.
• Collaborate with the instructional designer on current research findings in human learning as basis for developing new products for both classroom and e-learning.
• Publish CIIT Journal.

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE OF THE CENTRE