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Fed. Poly, Oko, trains staff on blackboard LMS

Over 200 academic staff of the Federal Polytechnic, Oko, Anambra state, were on Wednesday, 18th June,  2025 trained on the Blackboard Learning Management System (BLMS).The training was in line with the 12 points agenda of the rector of the polytechnic, Dr. Chioma Irene Awuzie, which harped on staff welfare and academic reinvention of programmes.The training was aimed at equipping lecturers with necessary skills needed for effective utilization of the blackboard LMS platform in delivering quality educational instruction. The blackboard LMS training, which took place at the ICT Academy of the institution, was sponsored by TETFund.The rector, Dr. Chioma Irene Awuzie, represented by the Deputy Rector Academic, Dr. Nkiru Akabuike, in her opening remarks, revealed that the Federal Polytechnic, Oko, will go fully digital in teaching and learning from next session, saying that any teaching staff that has not gotten institutional e-mail has no place in the classroom.She also warned lecturers to ensure that they generate their examination questions for students by themselves rather than relying on questions generated using artificial intelligence (AI) as lecturers will be held responsible for any question leakage.She emphasized that the overall aim of the training was to ensure that all staff are computer compliant and up to speed."I appreciate our rector, Dr. Chioma Awuzie, for this dream come through. When she took over in February this year, she met backlog of uncomputed results because, we still used analog computation system."In her inaugural address, she declared a state of emergency on result management, verification, issuance, statement of result and processing of transcripts and certificates to ensure seamless graduation and mobilisation for NYSC."So, I can tell you that this TETFund sponsored training being powered by ICT directorate of our institution is the icing on the cake. I am happy that today, the backlog of results have been cleared."Blackboard LMS is a digital platform aimed at impacting knowledge without being physically present in the classroom. The benefit of this system is enormous, and we are set to embrace the technology."She, therefore, advised all participants to take advantage of the training and pay rapt attention in order to acquire knowledge that would help them compete favourably at the global stage.The eesource person, Mrs Blessing Amadi, described blackboard LMS  as an e-learning platform used in tertiary institutions to create, manage, and distribute educational materials and courses online. She said the platform could be used to create course content, generate multiple questions, assess students, as well as mark and grade students.She said blackboard also has fixtures that accommodate calculation based courses, and courses that involve drawings and illustrations.The Director of ICT, Federal Polytechnic, Oko, Dr. Amobi Chiamogu, said the training will, no doubt, enhance digital teaching and learning in tertiary institutions in Nigeria, adding that the e-learning come as a result of Covid-19 pandemic experience.He, however, called on lecturers to ensure that they create original content to avoid losing the value of the blackboard and the training.