Register for the Transforming University Communication in a Digital Era Webinar Series
This webinar series seeks to review strategies universities and students can adopt to connect to the community and nation.
Course holder: Dr. Stanford G. Mukasa
Time: 10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. EST / 12:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. SAST / 2:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. GMT
Duration: 2 Weeks
Tuition fee: $ 80
At the end of the webinar, institutions will be able to :
- Use or establish its information infrastructure to interpret and communicate research knowledge for the practical benefit of the community, especially in promoting technologies that will improve rural and urban people’s socio-economic development.
- Develop or adopt courses on the eLearnAfrica platform that will give students entrepreneurial skills in the job market or create their own jobs.
The webinar series will be interactive, allowing universities that have adopted either or both above objectives to share their experience with others.
Background: Universities have traditionally and historically been designed and viewed as elitist institutions of learning separated from the community. They have always existed as centers of learning with a separate existence from the communities they are supposed to serve.
In post-colonial Africa, universities have been called upon to be part of the communities they serve. This means transferring knowledge and skills to the human socio-economic development efforts in the community. The webinar series is divided into two main topics that revolve around the theme: Reimagining the transformative role of communication in the African university
Part 1: Connecting the university to the community through public relations.
Universities must share research and other information with members of the community instead of stockpiling such information on their library shelves. The big questions for the universities include: What information infrastructure exists at the university to facilitate sharing of knowledge and information with the community? Are you doing any research that will benefit the public? If yes, how do you plan to share the results with the community as well as help in the practical applications of that research? Here, below, is one technology, the Hippo water roller for carrying water. Another is rural solar power for cooking, lighting, etc. The fact of the matter is, there are lots of technological innovations that are transforming lives. But not everyone who could benefit knows anything about some of them.
Part 2. Enhancing students’ entrepreneurial capacities in communication education.
Universities are being enjoined to produce graduates with entrepreneurial skills so that when they graduate there are ready jobs for them, or they can create jobs for themselves. For example, graduates with public relations skills can form their own consultancy and help companies to improve their image or deal with crises they may encounter. Graduates can also offer to help design and write publicity material for companies or organizations. Online courses on eLearnAfrica, which give the graduates the entrepreneurial skills they need will be the focus of the two-week webinar.
Webinar Agenda
| Week 1: Part 1 – Connecting the university to the community through Public Relations (PR) | |
| Date: 23rd to 27th January 2023. | Topic |
| Monday | Public Relations for the university’s community outreach |
| Week 1: Part 2 – Connecting students to the community | |
| Tuesday | University, SDGs and development communication |
| Wednesday | Public Relations and Advertising |
| Thursday | Part 1: Communication research |
| Friday | Part 2: Communication research |
| Week 2: Part 2 (continued) Connecting students to the community | |
| Date: 30th January to 3rd February 2023. | Topic |
| Monday | Business reporting |
| Tuesday | Science writing |
| Wednesday | Public affairs reporting |
| Thursday | Part 1: Writing for the electronic media |
| Friday | Part 1: Writing for the electronic media |
