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TEACHING OLD DOGS NEW TRICKS: A PARADIGM OF LIFELONG LEARNING FOR QUALITY IMPROVEMENT OF ACADEMICS IN ODL INSTITUTIONS IN AFRICA

There is an unending explosive demand in many African countries for access to higher education as a way of improving the people’s quality of life. Yet, the conventional institutions do not have absorptive capacity to meet the needs of such teeming population, hence, the existence of ODL institutions. However, many academics including the professionals who work in the ODL institutions in Africa had their training background in and work orientation at the conventional F2F institutions. In order for them to adequately integrate into the operational processes as well as to maintain quality, both of the ODL programme and products, they must, of necessity, undergo regular training and retraining programmes, so as to improve their performance level. No matter, the age, qualification and experience of such individuals who may not have taught or worked in an ODL environment before joining such a virtual higher institution of learning where students should be the centre piece of focus in order to achieve positive throughout rate, it therefore, becomes pertinent that they are made to embark on learning to learn new ideas while at the same time, learning to unlearn old ways of doing things from the conventional institutional basis, thus bringing about a behavioral modification and attitudinal change. This will therefore, confirm that when learning is considered from many perspectives, it should still be seen as a lifelong phenomenon and therefore, everybody is a subject of teaching and learning encounter in that respect.