Port-Vila, Vanuatu – 13 April 2022: Recently some students of the National University of Vanuatu (NUV) show their gratitude to the NUV for the IT support on the online learning platform accessible for free for all the Digicel and Vodafone users.
The COVID-19 pandemic has recently become a global health issue and hassignificantly impacted education. Since the beginning of the lockdown on 5 March 2022, the National University of Vanuatu (NUV) has closed its campus to comply with the restrictions in place due to the COVID-19 outbreak in Vanuatu. As a result, learning methods were shifted to online learning even before the beginning of the first semester. In preparation of a potential outbreak, the NUV already developed its online learning platform. Digicel and Vodafone Vanuatu supported the NUV by providing a free access to those platforms in March 2022. The NUV IT Team worked closely with the operators to implement the free access to the online learning platforms but also with the students and the teachers to ensure they all could access the platforms. Online learning replaced traditional face-to-face learning to ensure educational continuity.
The Vice-Chancellor and President of the NUV, Mr. Jean-Pierre Nirua, said “The first weeks were very challenging. Both students and lecturers have been subjected to unprecedented changes, but the National University of Vanuatu is prepared to proactively turn the situation around by offering online learning support and, most importantly, ensure continuity in teaching and learning to its students”.
The NUV IT Technician, Mr. Daniel Silas, added “The IT Team had a lot of requests regarding online access and credentials forgotten for the first weeks. After working with Digicel and Vodafone, the students can now do their e-learning free of charge. So even if they don’t have credit or a data bundle, they can do their e-learning. It is a key milestone to ensure learning continuity. We also adapted the platform based on the feedback provided by the students. It is an ongoing process!”.
A NUV student, Mrs Joan Stephanie SAWIA, commented “the platform itself actually works fine and is actually well-designed”. Another student, Mrs. Davlyne May Otto, added “a big applause to our IT technicians, the platform is well organized. Everything is in order!”.
