UWI making plans to introduce ‘smart learning’

The University of the West Indies (UWI) Cave Hill is revolutionizing its set up in a way that is going to allow students to access most of their learning material and classes online.
Cave Hill’s Principal Eudine Barriteau recently announced that the Smart Campus is coming on stream to harness the advances in Information Technology, such as smart phones, big data, the internet and cloud service, towards transforming educational delivery and pedagogy.

Delivering a report to the Campus Council in the Campus’ Main Conference Room on Friday, Barriteau said the main focus of the introducing the Smart Campus is to revolutionize the education system through diversification of content and widespread application of information technology while maintaining vigilance over investment, quality assurance and student- centredness.

She said a critical aspect of the Smart Campus which is still at planning stages is broadening accessibility.

“The Smart Campus expands accessibility for students who are differently-abled and for those whose careers or lives do not permit them to be in a physical classroom for every class. The Smart Campus harnesses information technologies, deploys our blended learning policy, and provide students with options in terms of how they access learning in three key areas. Students will have options in how the Campus presents content, demonstrating their acquisition of knowledge, skills and abilities and their engagement in the process of learning,” she said.

The Principal also disclosed that UWI will also seek to integrate the Smart Campus into the neighbouring Warrens business community by designing a Smart Campus\Smart City proposal.

“This is intended to position the Cave Hill Campus as an integral, but seamless driver of services, resources, and intellectual capital in an urban, business and residential community. Professor Winston Moore and Dr. Justin Robinson are currently working on this proposal,” she explained.

Professor Barriteau said the Campus recognises that the educational model introduced in the 1960s to provide a UWI education primarily for citizens of Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean has reached its limits, providing the required woman and man power to build post-independence countries. She said the Campus has now reconceptualised the educational model and is in the process of positioning the UWI Cave Hill Campus as a unique provider of higher education nationally, regionally and globally and is fully embracing the digital stage in every aspect of its ongoing development.

“The Campus has employed two previous strategies that have served it well; ‘one graduate per household’, and ‘creating knowledge households’. These coincided with providing the human resources to for a service-oriented model of development. Creating knowledge households refashioned the earlier approach to focus on households acquiring technologies of learning in preparation for the digital era. We are now here and our new educational model, the smart Campus model reflects that.”

“Through assessing the internal and external environment, responding to the mandate of the 2017-2022 strategic plan, assessing our strengths and responding to our threats, we have determined that the Cave Hill Campus has to pursue an educational model designed to exploit the digital era. We have decided that new approach will be centred on the triple strategic goals of access, alignment and agility of our new strategic plan, undergird our thrust and vision to transform Cave Hill into a Smart Campus,” she said.

She informed that the new initiative will broaden access, improve the Campus’ internal operating processes, particularly, transforming the teaching and learning environment, promote innovation and become more entrepreneurial across all operations. (AH)