Professor Chinedum Peace Babalola, Vice Chancellor of Chrisland
University, Abeokuta has disclosed that the institution is taking the lead in
providing quality and value to teaching, learning and assessment using the
Classera platform. Recall that the institution has just concluded her second
semester examinations via virtual mode. No thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. The
examinations  were powered by a learning management system called
Classera.



In the words of Professor Babalola, the use of the platform to conduct the just
concluded online examination for the students of the university has added
quality and value to the university’s method of assessment which is founded on
integrity.



In a statement released through the office of the Vice-Chancellor, the
professor further stated that the university had studied other possible online
assessment methods including Google Classroom,  among others, and
discovered gaps which were well taken care in Classera.  "The
University found Clasera Learning Management System (LMS) to be robust enough
to handle learning and assessment with emphasis on the examination integrity".



Professor Babalola explained that with Clasera, seven different question modes
like essays, mcqs, hotpots, fill in the blanks, among others are available,
adding that the platform has its own language, and it includes real-time video
and chats which makes it highly robust and flexible.



Emphasising on the integrity of the remote virtual examination, the
Vice-Chancellor said, “The university did not want to jump into online
examination to avoid malpractices and lowering of the standards. Hence, we took
time to understudy Classera and test run it until we were satisfied that it
would help run exams that are credible and devoid of cheating as much as
possible. With the use of a proctor, no one else can impersonate in the exams,
as it does live video recording of the activities during the exam and provide
live monitoring to supervisors. With these, it can track any intruder into that
exam and once it observes any form of malpractice, it will shut down. Apart
from that, all what transpired during the exams are stored in the university
cloud storage for review where required”.



Providing a background on how the university adopted Classera, Professor
Babalola said, “Chrisland University was one of the first universities in
Nigeria to embark on online learning immediately the lock down was declared. To
run an effective online teaching and learning, workshop on e-learning was
conducted for lecturers in late March and  lectures began in the first
week of April.



At the outset, the university adopted various platforms including Google
Classroom, Zoom meeting, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp and others. In between,
lecturers were attending various online training workshops. As time went by, the
University considered the need to have a  more suitable Learning
Management System (LMS) and in the process discovered Classera Learning
Management System which presented by the trio of HP, Classera and Miral
Companies”.



Rating the performance of the institution and the platform adopted, the Vice
Chancellor declared that the  online exams were largely successful with
minor issues experienced by the students which are mainly due to network
connectivity which is a national problem in Nigeria.



On the other uses of Classera, Professor Babalola mentioned that, the platform
would also be deployed to run the summer semester teaching and learning which
will be starting very soon and it will also be useful as the University plans
to blend face to face learning with LMS in the post pandemic scenario.



She added that the platform would help the university with quality assurance
assessment of both staff and students as the Management of the institution
could use it to assess staff performance from the comfort of their offices.



She said that the National Universities Commission (NUC) in Nigeria could use
it to assess universities’ performance as It offers a good quality assurance
performance system.

Babalola said that with the successes recorded with the use of the platform,
Chrisland University has taken a giant leap ahead of many other institutions in
utilising technologies for the delivery of teaching, learning and assessment.
She expresses her appreciation to the members of staff who committed their
energy and resources to the successes recorded so far and admonishes them not
to rest on their oars.