How the continent’s leading distance learning provider has helped our nations’ students fall in love with learning!
As the 18th eLearning Africa conference ended in Kigali last month, one of the resounding messages taken away was “The love for Moodle is real!” An increasing number of higher education institutions are relying on distance learning, making Learning Management Systems crucial components for online provision.
Africa’s beacon organisation in the eLearning landscape continues to be the National Open University of Nigeria, whose deployment of Moodle has gone from strength to strength since outsourcing its LMS infrastructure management to global Moodle services provider and Certified Premium Moodle partner, Catalyst IT. NOUN offers over 2000 courses to a record-breaking 150,000 active students across the African continent and world-wide.
Here, The Director of Learning Management Systems at NOUN, Dr Lukuman Bello, describes how a stable and reliable Moodle platform gives his organisation the time, capacity and confidence to deliver an excellent learning experience for its students.
A strategic move online
“In 2017 National Open University of Nigeria decided to move all of its instructional delivery online,” Dr Bello explains. “But first we had to ensure that our online Moodle provision was stable and reliable, which up to that point had been problematic. “We had been directly hosting our own Moodle LMS platform, but slow login times were restricting student access; storage capacity was causing some issues; and the number of interruptions to the service our students were experiencing was unacceptable.
We could not run the risk of interrupted service during peak usage times, which correspond to exam periods, when we have up to 30,000 students online simultaneously,” states Dr Bello.
Partnering with Moodle experts Catalyst
With offices in EMEA, North America and AusPac, Catalyst IT is a globally proven Moodle services provider and implementation partner. Deploying AWS regional cloud hosting solutions, Catalyst IT are dedicated specialists in Moodle LMS hosting, using their own architecture design and unique themes for presenting instructional content.
Explaining Catalyst IT’s approach Dr Bello says: “In 2018 Catalyst IT came in and conducted a proper analysis of NOUN’s existing system and situation. Following this, they made recommendations for better hosting sites, with aggregated security and maintenance services.
“This gave us the space and confidence to focus on what we do best – the front-end design and delivery of courses and content.”
Other excellent results of NOUN’s partnership with Catalyst IT include:
- Uninterrupted learner experience: A remarkable result for NOUN since working with Catalyst IT has been uninterrupted access to their learning platform for learners and instructors alike. A full six years and counting of 100% system availability is a brilliant achievement, helping to cast NOUN as the most stable and reliable online higher education provider in west Africa.
- Rising numbers of enrolments “With greater system stability comes greater learner confidence, and we have seen this reflected in a steady rise in student enrolments,” comments Dr Bello.
“We have found that our students prefer the convenience, cost effectiveness and flexibility of accessing content online rather than having to travel to physical study centre locations. This gives us the impetus to focus as much as possible on the quality of our instructional delivery,” he says.
- Increased focus on continuous improvement of content enhances retention and student satisfaction: Not having to worry about the platform stability has imparted greater confidence amongst the teaching staff also.
“We have certainly expanded the frontiers of content delivery, deploying a variety of resources, media and activities to enhance learner experience,” says Dr Bello.
“Student engagement is critical in the context of distance learning, where attrition rates are naturally very high.
“Nevertheless, we have a globally scattered student body consistently accessing the system 24 hours a day, with brand new enrolments every semester. With Catalyst IT’s support we have the confidence to refresh most of our instructional content every semester. This helps us to stay relevant and inviting to our students. As a result, our positive student feedback surveys each semester demonstrate how we have definitely gained a positive reputation with our learners,” declares Dr Bello.
- Cost effective system capacity: Highlighting a particular benefit of Catalyst IT’s architecture Dr Bello says: “Catalyst IT provides what is known as elastic storage. This means that the bandwidth and capacity of the platform automatically expands and contracts according to user demand. The more traffic, the more it expands, while at quieter times it contracts. The benefit of this is two-fold,” Dr Bello outlines.
“Firstly, we can have confidence that the system is scalable and resilient enough for the traffic. Secondly it means we don’t have to make an estimated capital investment upfront to provide capacity. Instead, we are buying flexibility, peace of mind, and are only paying for the capacity we need when we need it,” asserts Dr Bello.
NOUN’s hallmark Moodle offering
Without doubt NOUN’s partnership with Catalyst IT has enabled them to deliver hallmark content and gain a reputation for leadership and direction throughout the continent of Africa.
Commenting on this Dr Bello says: “It is clear at events like the eLearning conference that many organisations in Africa look up to, NOUN and our Moodle implementation, “With the proper, stable hosting, security and maintenance provided by Catalyst IT we can really make the best of Moodle to help us deliver excellence.”
Next Steps
Describing what’s next for NOUN Dr Bello says: “We wish to engage more with Catalyst IT to expand our instructional delivery process and introduce the capabilities of AI and learning analytics. With greater insight into the digital footprint of our learners we will be able to understand what they’re doing and refine our support in the most appropriate way,” he concludes.
National Open University of Nigeria heartily recommends Catalyst IT as a Moodle partner and is poised to receive further enrolments from students wishing for an engaging, satisfying and convenient route to obtain higher education qualifications from the comfort of their own home.
__________________ Catalyst IT Company Bio: Catalyst IT is a global leader in education technology, specialising in open-source solutions. In Africa, we work closely with institutions like the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) and the University of Nairobi to enhance their e-learning capabilities. Our partnership with these clients reflects our commitment to advancing education across the continent. We were honoured with the Moodle Partner of the Year award in 2023, recognising our expertise in e-learning solutions. Additionally, our collaboration with Edutab Africa supports universities, colleges, and schools in Africa further. Through these partnerships and our tailored solutions, Catalyst IT is driving meaningful change in education throughout Africa, and the rest of the world. LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/catalyst-it-europe-limited X/Twitter - https://x.com/Catalyst_IT_EU YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@catalystiteurope
EduTimes Africa, a product of Education Times Africa, is a magazine publication that aims to lend its support to close the yawning gap in Africa's educational development.
Hey people!!!!!
Good mood and good luck to everyone!!!!!