UWI to introduce video-conferencing classes in September

KINGSTON, Jamaica – The University of the West Indies Open Campus (UWIOC) says it will be introducing video-conferencing to its online face-to-face courses in the upcoming academic year.

Head of the campus, Leven Griffiths, told JIS News that a video link will enable course delivery in real time in cases where there is no resource persons to teach a particular class.

UWIOC said that there are more than 50 online degree programmes that persons can access from wherever they are in the English-speaking Caribbean, while face-to-face programmes are offered at 11 locations in Jamaica and several other countries throughout the region.

These include Fundamentals in Business Education, Accounting Information System, Advanced Procurement Management, Business Writing, Care of the Elderly, Early-Childhood Education, Creative Writing, Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management, Introduction to Digital Marketing, Managing Conflict in the Workplace, among others.

Addressing a recent JIS Think Tank, Registrar at UWIOC, Karen Ford Warner, said the institution, which is the outreach arm of the University of the West Indies (UWI), has been providing access to education to thousands of persons from Jamaica and the wider region.

She said some 5,000 to 6,000 persons study online annually with UWIOC and 15,000 study face-to-face and caters to students from the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) up to the doctoral level, full-time or part-time, on-campus or online.

UWIOC said it is currently accepting applications for its online and face-to-face short courses, which are offered in more than 50 locations in 16 countries across the Caribbean.

Deadline for submissions for the online courses is July 31, and August 18 for the on-site short courses.