Students’ Perception of General Education Courses at the Faculty of Engineering and Technology, University of Botswana

To adequately prepare graduates for the ever-changing and complex work environment, students should be equipped with technical and professional skills. This can be achieved by a curriculum that incorporates General Education Courses (GEC) that teach diverse essential skills that every graduate must possess e.g. academic and professional competencies, ethics, global learning, and active citizenship. Such courses help will produce a well-rounded learning experience and well-versed graduate. A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted with undergraduate engineering and industrial design students at the University of Botswana. The study assessed the students’ current perceptions of the GEC. The results show that the skills outlined in the Learning and Teaching Policy of the University of Botswana are poorly attained. Furthermore, the skills outlined in the policy are not aligned with the skills that will be needed by graduates in the 4th Industrial Revolution. The GEC curriculum at the University of Botswana needs to be reviewed.

Universities in Developmental Transition

This chapter interrogates the benefits that would accrue to and challenges faced by universities in their developmental transition from being an ivory tower to engaged and people-centered institutions. The chapter argues that universities should consider themselves as vehicles of socio-economic change by participating in the process of forming values and setting reachable goals for the benefit of larger society. University of Botswana (UB) adopted ‘Strategy for Excellence: University of Botswana Strategic Plan to 2016 and Beyond' while the University of KwaZulu-Natal has adopted Strategic Plan 2017-2021 with eight goals. Through these plans, the universities seek to have a more direct impact within communities and society. Community engagement or service learning is adopted as one of the vehicles to fast-track the transition process in this chapter. This chapter is qualitative and has made use of UB and UKZN as the case studies to deliberate the university transition from ivory towers into engaged, responsible, and people-centered institutions.

Interactional Patterns in English as a Second Language Classrooms at Higher Learning

This study investigates the interactional patterns that were used in ESL classrooms at higher learning at the University of Botswana and the reasons for the said patterns. A qualitative approach was employed and the classroom observations were used to investigate the topic. To further shed some light on the patterns used in the CSS classrooms, reference will be made to Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory and Sinclair & Coulthard’s Initiation, Response, Feedback (IRF) analytical tool. The results indicated that there were ‘new’ interactional patterns at the University of Botswana classrooms. Some of these were Initiation Response (IR) and Initiation Response Response (IRR) which led to the conclusions that the patterns of interaction which emanated from the study were, “better”, “good”, and “not so good” (BGN interactional patterns). This study concludes that there is an attempt to produce quality classroom interaction as the interactional patterns of “better”, “good”, and “not so good” (BGN interactional patterns) were demonstrated with the first two categories carrying higher percentages.

An Overview of Chemistry Teaching Transformation during COVID-19 Pandemic: An Experience from University of Botswana

COVID-19-related disruption in teaching in the University of Botswana led the school to prepare new strategies for running classes and to design innovative way of instruction. The most notable change was to replace face-to-face lectures with online teaching at least partially (blended teaching and learning). This posed many challenges, especially in the teaching of science and technology subjects. In a laboratory-based discipline such as chemistry the problems encountered were especially daunting. Moreover, writing mathematical equations, chemical reactions and reaction mechanisms posed their own difficulties. The present communication provides a brief overview of how chemistry education at the University, the premier national university of Botswana, has been transformed during the last three semesters. It is based on experience of the author and as judged by the feed-back received from colleagues and the students. Admittedly, the experience is limited and much discussion is still in progress to meet the unresolved challenges. Theory classes at undergraduate levels are now mostly taught online using packages such as Moodle and MS Teams. The tutorial and laboratory sessions have faced the greatest disruptions and the instructors continue to explore ways to conduct these virtually. Online examinations were found to be limited in their effectiveness, especially in the assessment of drawing chemical structure and reaction mechanisms as well as the students’ ability in scientific writing.

Sacred Earth and African Women’s Theology

This special issue is one of the nine academic publications emerging from the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians’ (the Circle) Fifth Pan-African Conference, held at the University of Botswana (Gaborone), July 2-5, 2019. The conference was also a commemoration of the Circle’s thirty years of existence. It featured papers on some aspects of the theme, “Mother Earth and Mother Africa in Theological/Religious/Cultural/Philosophical Imagination.” As was noted in the Conference Call for Papers:The land is often constructed as female gendered and the oppression of women is interlinked with the oppression of the Earth; and…it is widely acknowledged that we live in the era of global warming - which is humanly induced and of which many have also linked with anthropocentric religious/cultural/theological perspectives.

Novel Education Modules Addressing the Underrepresentation of Skin of Color in Dermatology Training

Background Representative images of pathology in patients with skin of color are lacking in most medical education resources. This particularly affects training in dermatology, which relies heavily on the use of images to teach pattern recognition. The presentation of skin pathology can vary greatly among different skin tones, and this lack of representation of dark skin phototypes challenges providers’ abilities to provide quality care to patients of color. In Botswana and other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, this challenge is further compounded by limited resources and access to dermatologists. There is a need for improved and accessible educational resources to train medical students and local medical providers in basic skin lesion description and diagnosis. Objectives We examined whether online Perceptual and Adaptive Learning Modules (PALMs) composed of representative dark skin images could efficiently train University of Botswana medical students to more accurately describe and diagnose common skin conditions in their community. Methods Year 4 and 5 medical students voluntarily completed PALMs that teach skin morphology, configuration, and distribution terminology and diagnosis of the most common dermatologic conditions in their community. Pre-tests, post-tests and delayed-tests assessed knowledge acquisition and retention. Results PALMs training produced statistically significant ( P < .0001) improvements in accuracy and fluency with large effect sizes (1.5, 3.7) and good retention after a 12.5-21-week median delay. Limitations were a self-selected group of students, a single institution, slow internet connections, and high drop-out rates. Conclusions Overall, population-specific PALMs are a useful tool for efficient development of pattern recognition in skin disease description and diagnosis.

Development and launch of the first obstetrics and gynaecology master of medicine residency training programme in Botswana

Background Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) faces a severe shortage of Obstetrician Gynaecologists (OBGYNs). While the Lancet Commission for Global Surgery recommends 20 OBGYNs per 100,000 population, Botswana has only 40 OBGYNs for a population of 2.3 million. We describe the development of the first OBGYN Master of Medicine (MMed) training programme in Botswana to address this human resource shortage. Methods We developed a 4-year OBGYN MMed programme at the University of Botswana (UB) using the Kern’s approach. In-line with UB MMed standards, the programme includes clinical apprenticeship training complemented by didactic and research requirements. We benchmarked curriculum content, learning outcomes, competencies, assessment strategies and research requirements with regional and international programmes. We engaged relevant local stakeholders and developed international collaborations to support in-country subspecialty training. Results The OBGYN MMed curriculum was completed and approved by all relevant UB bodies within ten months during which time additional staff were recruited and programme financing was assured. The programme was advertised immediately; 26 candidates applied for four positions, and all selected candidates accepted. The programme was launched in January 2020 with government salary support of all residents. The clinical rotations and curricular development have been rolled out successfully. The first round of continuous assessment of residents was performed and internal programme evaluation was conducted. The national accreditation process was initiated. Conclusion Training OBGYNs in-country has many benefits to health systems in SSA. Curricula can be adjusted to local resource context yet achieve international standards through thoughtful design and purposeful collaborations.

eLearning Tools at the University of Botswana: Relevance and Use Under COVID-19 Crisis

Information communications technology (ICT) is currently a highly sought component of every higher learning institutions, especially universities and colleges gravitate towards eLearning mode of instruction and knowledge acquisition. eLearning encompass multiple technology and Internet-based learning platforms that requires computer literacy from both learners and instructors. eLearning has been upgraded such that it offers more flexibility and comfort as instruction and learning occurs any time and at the users’ preferred environment. However, for most African Universities, the challenge in the use of eLearning is expedited by excess number of students, poor infrastructural development and poor access to the Internet off campus. At the University of Botswana, the need and urgency to address aforementioned difficulties was exposed in the era of COVID-19 pandemic where the use of eLearning was a dare situation for both instructors and learners. In this article, the authors discuss the background of eLearning tools at the University of Botswana, types of eLearning tools, their relevance, use, advantages and the challenges encountered. Prospects are also discussed. The article is based on the experiences of the authors, their observations, as well as the literature review and the use of the social constructionism or social constructivism theory.

The Concoct of Digital Preservation in Open Access

Research pursuit in Open Access (OA) has become a center of interest in academic institutions. Academic institutions and publishers have been energetically working hard towards achieving strategic and sustained partnerships in providing OA to information resources. While the work of strengthening these endeavours is ongoing, very little have been done on the logistics for digital preservation of OA resources in Institutional Repositories. This chapter explores digital preservation processes in OA using the University of Botswana Research, Innovation, and Scholarship Archive (UBRISA) as a case study. The chapter establishes the implementation activities, the outcomes, and challenges experienced by UBRISA. The findings reveal that the UBRISA commits to strategically capturing and preserving the intellectual output, raw data, and historic values of the institution for posterity. The UBRISA is challenged by limited budgets, logistical challenges, and limited expertise. This chapter recommends that partnerships and advocacy for legislative structures that support OA are critical.