3.5: The Near Miss

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After frantic efforts throughout the summer, after my return from Ghana, to link up with my collaborator, Dr. Senah, Dr. Akosua Darkwah also of the Sociology Department of UGL, was suggested as a replacement. Dr. Senah had been quite busy teaching and also attending conferences in Europe. My several emails and phone calls were not returned. My attempt to seek my colleagues input in crafting the course syllabus proved futile. When all seemed to be lost, I managed to reach Dr. Senah, eventually. He then suggested I contacted Dr. Darkwah, who he said teaches a graduate course in Globalization. This was mid-December 2007. Thankfully, Dr. Darkwah readily accepted the challenge. Her biggest headache was how to get in touch with her 12 graduate students, who because of the closure of the UGL due to the African Cup of Nations Soccer Tournament, were scattered all over the country. In the end, with dodged determination, she managed to get six of the students to enroll in the course. Had Dr. Darkwah not agreed at the last moment to team up with me, the project would have been a non-starter, and for this I am deeply indebted to her.

The Course Website and "Bells and Whistles"

Concurrently, Information and Educational Technology (IET) Department was building course website on Moodle for the project. Meg Goodine of IET was a consultant for the project. She assigned Sue Birthwell of IET to assist the University of Ghana Online Collaborative Learning Project in the following ways:

Production of course (i.e., identifying and engineering course content for digital delivery format)
Administration of tech support for faculty, students;
Maintenance of course (content management)
Administration of delivery of course from KUC to Ghana using course management system (Elluminate)
Consultation, training: faculty preparation for online teaching and course facilitation