National University of Samoa

The National University of Samoa (ia ao Samoa, NUS) is a university located in Apia, Samoa

The university was founded in 1984 and today (2011) approximately 2,000 students enroll there while almost 300 staff are employed at NUS. Students can earn bachelor and master degrees at this university.

The university's Virtual Classroom is a course management system (CMS), or a Learning Management System (LMS) or Virtual Learning Environments (VLE). It was built entirely from free open source software (Moodle) and open source programming languages. See http://www.nus.edu.ws/Virtualclassroom/login/index.php.

The University web site is at http://www.nus.edu.ws.

More Details

The academic year at the National University of Samoais divided into two semesters. The first semester starts in February and the second semester in July for the Institute of Higher Education. Each semester has a mid-semester break and a study week.

The collaborative paper PCF5:Development of E-Learning in Education in Samoa: Issues, Challenges, Strategies and Recommendations for the Way Forward at http://directory.wikieducator.org/PCF5:Development_of_E-Learning_in_Education_in_Samoa:_Issues,_Challenges,_Strategies_and_Recommendations_for_the_Way_Forward (2008) notes:

The virtual classrooms were first established in 2003 and currently supplement on-campus instruction. The virtual classrooms are hosted within the Moodle learner management system. There are 27 classes currently hosted from 5 faculties of the Institute of Higher Education (IHE).

Current usage is mostly hosting of course notes in Word and Power point. Unfortunately the different features of the virtual classrooms are underutilised, for example the use of bulletin boards, discussion forum, student webmail for running the helpdesk, and the use of chatrooms.

A critical issue in the use of the virtual classrooms is access. With only 6 computer labs to service a student population of about 2000, access to computers and the network is a problem. A problematic factor is the stability of the infrastructure. Another major aspect which needs addressing is that of training for staff and students. Specifically for NUS, lecturers and students need to be trained in the use of Moodle, basic file management skills, email usage and web navigation.

The virtual classrooms have enhanced access and quality of education through improved access to course notes, better communication between lecturer and students and amongst students, and through facilitation of more effective management of the classroom activities.

Ongoing plans for further development and expansion of the virtual classrooms include: a) the training of teachers and students in the use of Virtual classrooms;b) training of teachers in pedagogical skills for technology integration into teaching; c) training in the use of authoring tools to develop learning objects for course content; and d) diversification of course content by use of authoring tools such as Webcom, EXE and Wikieducator

References

• "PCF5:Development of E-Learning in Education in Samoa: Issues, Challenges, Strategies and Recommendations for the Way Forward", see 2 collaborators online, WikiEducator, 2008, http://directory.wikieducator.org/PCF5:Development_of_E-Learning_in_Education_in_Samoa:_Issues,_Challenges,_Strategies_and_Recommendations_for_the_Way_Forward, July 2011

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