Training of lecturers at Maseno University, Kenya

Abstract

Lecturers in Kenyan universities usually start their work without any prior training on how to teach students. Hence the teaching tends to be traditional and new training techniques are rarely implemented. For effective teaching, lecturers need to develop skills on preparation and presentation of new course materials, using modern methods. One of many changes to the statistics teaching at Maseno University was to teach an MSc. course in a way that also provided staff training. The course combined an international e-learning course with lecture notes which had previously been taught by a visiting lecturer. Two junior staff were given the day to day responsibility of teaching the new MSc course, with a senior lecturer observing, advising and taking overall responsibility. This paper describes the course and the learning experience.