ACETEL Living Up To Expectation – NOUN VC

The Vice-Chancellor, National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Prof. Olufemi Peters has said the African Centre of Excellence on Technology Enhanced Learning (ACETEL) is living up to expectation in facilitating tech-solutions for learning particularly in Nigeria and the West African sub-region.

Peters, in a letter conveying management commendation to ACETEL Center Director, Prof. Grace Jokthan also said it is particularly gratifying to note key successes recorded by the centre in just over three (3) years of it’s full operation.

“ACETEL in our last convocation in March, 2024 is responsible for four out of the five PhD the university graduated in addition to numerous M.Sc.  graduates amongst others.”

He identified these successes to include: the hosting of six postgraduate (M.Sc. and PhD) programmes in Artificial Intelligence, Cyber security and Management Information System leading to an encouraging uptake of PhD and Master’s students which constitute a very large number of regional intake.

“The Centre’s current and ongoing National and International accreditation as well as the quality assurance processes for the centre’s programme, and the Development of the Examination Result Presentation Platform (ERPP) currently in use by the university’s Directorate of Exams and Assessments (DEA) for the presentation of results.”

Others successes recorded by ACETEL, according to him include; the university Regional Strategy, Transformation Strategy and Policy Framework for Risk Mitigation, Regional and industrial Strategy, C-code initiative for development of two recording studios for content and video production in the university as well as the successful collaboration with the NUC for data connectivity at the university headquarters which has improved access to online resources and service delivery.

The Vice Chancellor added that the university’s management is extremely satisfied with ACETEL’s initiatives in supporting capacity building for staff through participating in international conferences and training workshops for open and distance learning, digital education and forensics, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and phantom programming to mention a few.

“While appreciating the commendable revenue generation profile of the centre, I encourage you to do more in this regard in order to sustain it’s laudable achievements beyond the tenure of World Bank funding,” Peters added.

While receiving the letter, ACETEL centre director, Prof. Grace Jokthan thanked the VC for his unalloyed support to the center without which she said the successes recorded would have been a mirage.

Jokthan also added that the challenges thus far are not insurmountable. “I assured with management continued support, the centre will introduce more new short courses and continue in broadening students population across the African continent.”