Moi University has benefited from a donation of digital audio-visual equipment worth Sh6 million from the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government and Donghua University to set up two advanced smart classrooms named “Shanghai Love Classroom” toward enhancing distance learning in both institutions. The classrooms will be based at its Mombasa campus and the main campus in Uasin Gishu County.
During the launch at Moi University’s Mombasa campus, Shang Yuying, Vice Secretary General of Shanghai Municipal People’s Government, noted that Donghua University had a relationship dating back to 1950 with Moi University. She reiterated the role of smart classrooms in digital education and further noted that Moi University has taken the lead in this sector for over a decade now.
The institution has partnered with other institutions to set up other digital classrooms in different countries since 2016, among them the Confucius Institute for textile engineering and fashion design that was launched in 2015 at Moi University. Yuying hopes to fully exploit the potential of the donated equipment in a bid to further deepen collaboration between Chinese and Kenyan institutions.
CIMU has been instrumental in providing the much-needed skills in textiles and apparels that have been beneficial to the Chinese industries in Kenya. Yuying emphasized that there was a need to train talents for effective work in the industry, developing research collaboration with the aim of creating a Centre of Excellence to cement these relations between China and Kenya.
According to Prof. Isaac Kosgey, the Vice-Chancellor of Moi University, smart classrooms are a boon to both the faculty and students for teaching and learning experiences. He further reiterated the commitment of the institution towards distance learning, through which education gets spread all over in Kenya and in the region. The setting up of smart classrooms in all the five campuses is on the pipeline to accommodate the rising demands of the virtual learners.
According to Prof. Masibo Lumala, the Director of the Institute of Open and Distance E-Learning at Moi University, the institution has been receptive to embracing the involvement of technology in education and is now expanding to online examinations. There will also be provisions for access to smart classrooms by people within the communities surrounding these institutions for various courses, such as language courses like Chinese, which may be helpful to professionals in other fields, like tourism and docking.