Nust moves from face-to-face to online mode

Only three categories of students will be allowed to participate in face-to-face tests at Nust.
Michelline Nawatises
Michelline Nawatises

The Namibia University of Science and Technology (Nust) released a statement on 10 June 2021 which made arrangements to move assessments to online mode.

A meeting with the online implementation committee, deans, associate deans teaching and learning SRC was organised to discuss the possibility of moving the current assessments to online mode with immediate effect.

Dr Andrew Niikondo, the deputy vice-chancellor for academic affairs, said the discussion was premised on the principle of categorising students taking assessments and recommend arrangements of how these categories will be managed to reduce the overcrowding of students on campus.

Meeting recommendations:

Only three categories of students should be allowed on campus to participate in face-to-face tests and practical work as follows:

· Students registered for courses that need to adhere to professional bodies;

· Students registered for courses where specialised software, which is only available in campus labs, is used during assessment ; and

· Students who need to be on campus for practical work as part of the course requirements.

The following decisions were made for students who do not fall into the above-mentioned categories:

· All face-to-face tests scheduled from 17:00 on 10 June will be taking place online.

· Tests scheduled for 17:00 on 10 June 2021 can still be scheduled online starting from Saturday 10 June 2021. The institutional core courses also reside under this category and should be written online.

Strict Covid19 regulations put in place

The gathering of more than 100 students who do not fall in the above-mentioned categories per venue should not be permitted. More than 1 000 students on campus are not allowed and the students who fall within the three categories are to be allowed on campus only 30 minutes before the test is to commence and 15 minutes after the test was concluded.

The lecturers were requested to convert their face-to-face tests to online and to ensure that students are made aware of the new arrangements well in advance.