The Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (NIALS), last week at its University of Lagos, Akoka, campus, Lagos agreed to partner with a foremost e-learning technology experts, Cyberspace Limited, for the advancement of legal education.
Cyberspace demonstrated how e- learning technology works at the Ayo Ajomo Auditorium, NIALS Lagos campus and at the institute’s library and how to incorporate the library into the virtual learning solution powered by the firm.
A research fellow at NIALS, Mr. Kelechi Amadi described the portal as platform for bring people together. He said it represented an education based service point, providing various services related to learners on–line education.
The platform, according to him, included an interface that enables the learners to locate course contents and perform a mixture of other course related functions. “E- Learning portals or systems are developed to serve both virtual and traditional educational institutions. It aids the assessment of educational curriculum outside the traditional classroom. In most cases it refers to a course, programme or degree delivered online. With technological advancements and the convenience of online learning, e Learning has become a much needed and required addition to learning,” he said.
Kelechi said the instute, which is the country’s apex institution for research and advanced studies in Law, went into partnership with Cyberspace and developed the online platform in fulfilment of its mandate as the centre for advanced legal research. This, he said, was done in order to continue a tradition of excellence in training knowledgeable, skilled and highly trained legal practitioners.
He added that it would create an accessible, user friendly web environment to support E- Learning and enable delivery of course materials and testing requirements of Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies”.
In a chat, the Director-General NIALS, Prof. Epiphany Azinge (SAN) said the institute would continue to upgrade and update its facilities with the techniques of teaching that will obviously stand the test of time.
“We are in a modern era and the only way we can compete favourably with institutions outside this country is for us to do some of the things that obtain outside this country and even better.
“ It is unfortunate that in Nigeria we don’t have any university among the first 100, 200, or 300. But the challenge is that with little drops of water a lot can be achieved. In the past, we had boasted that we had the best law library in Africa, but that seems to be in the past.
“And if we continue living in the past, then the future will be bleak for the Institute, so we conceptualised the idea of trying to broaden our horizon and our catchment area in the sense that more often than not, only people who can find time out of their crowded schedule in the office can find time to be in the Institute for continuing legal education whether in the postgraduate courses or may be trying to look at some specialised courses,” he said.
The NIALS Director-General said the only way the institute would continue to reach out to its teeming participants or would be participants is to device a means whereby the idea of electronic learning or distance learning would be introduced to effectively capture interested participants from Ghana, the Gambia, Senegal and other people from all parts of the world.
“Consequently we got in touch with Cyberspace group, who are experts in their own rights and knowledgeable enough, because they had done similar thing for the National Open University and we are trying to drive the process at a cost we consider very affordable and reasonable.
He said the e-learning was an opportunity for people to avail themselves with.
“We feel that this is the best thing that will happen to the Institute at this point in time, being able to beam whatever we are doing to all parts of the globe and more importantly, to Nigerian, so that people can access what we are doing and at a very cheap rate.
“They will know that in the legal community in Nigeria, a lot of work is being done comparable to other places and that Nigerian lawyers and scholars will stand their place anywhere in the world, that we should not be treated as if we are just second class people, but we are as good as the best anywhere, ” he said.
Cyberspapce Chief Marketing Officer, Mr. Olusola Bankole said the plan was to take NIALS to the global village, adding that since the whole world is now talking about globalisation.
“Nigeria cannot be an exception. What we are saying is that through this system, we want to make education available to everybody in Nigeria and beyond, we want to make it accessible, the traditional way of teaching and passing information today is through the four walls of the classroom,” he said.
The system, he said, is not about eradicating that method, but to compliment the solution. “It is Indeed, all about accessibility and availability. So in terms of the internet challenge, Nigeria cannot remain what it was, since things are changing now. We are part of that change process, thinking ahead of time, using technology to drive education access and availability,” he said.
On how prospective lawyers can access and benefit from the system, Bankole said: “It is very simple as a student. Currently the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies has students domiciled only in Nigeria, what this system will do is to make learning available to students, who are outside the country as well, even within the country, a situation where a student has to fly into Lagos or Abuja or Port Harcourt from Maiduguri to take lectures is unpalatable, the risks are high, the cost is becoming unbearable, but now right there in your bedroom, in your convenience you can log unto the class, read your books, write your tests and get results,” he said.
On how the library would be part of the innovation, the Cyberspace Marketing Manager, Mr. Chris Oyesanmi said a platform has been developed for the library and that it is in three components viz: the library automation, management and the e-resources.
“Right now we have the library automation going on and we have the e- learning platform already, so what we need to do is to create a link from the e-learning platform to link up the library so that from the e-learning platform, you can link up with the library. And the next thing to do is to create a reciprocity server where all the e-books will be stored and the people will have access to them.
According to him, the e-learning is also a source of revenue. “It is an Internally Generated Revenue source for the institution where the institution can generate revenue by allowing people to have access to most of their resources,” he said.
Bankole listed the benefits of the solution powered by Cyberspace to include easy creation of educational content; easy and free installation on web hosting solutions; tracking of users results; allowing for methodology improvements; clean interface; letting user focus on learning; synchronous and asynchronous communication channels; many tools allowing for all learning types both visual, audio; practical; serious games; extensive documents management capabilities; an embedded social networking feature allowing students and users to increase their desire to learn and real-time-controlled examination if required.
Others are e-learning leverages; Internet advantages; allowing updating; storing; recovering; distributing and sharing of information and training. “Learning is not over when training is finished, environment and relationships assure customers and suppliers that they have chosen the right partner to help them exceed in their objectives,” he said.
