Our History
The Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti Open and Distance Learning Centre (herein after referred to as ABUAD ODL) started with a Committee (called ODL Committee), which championed the pre-operation activities of the Centre. This Committee was constituted on the 5th of November, 2018, and was headed by Prof. Tolulope Adeola Ogunnusi; other members of the committee are Dr Emmanuel A. Ayodeji, Prof. Laofe Ogundipe, Dr Olusegun Olaitan, Mr. Opeyeoluwa Rotimi, and Mr Victor Sebiotimo.
The Committee steered the establishment of the Centre, and recommended B.Sc. Intelligence and Security Studies as the pilot programme for the take-off of the Centre and recommended further that, the Centre should subsequently add M.Sc. Finance, B.Sc. Economics, Masters in Public Health, B.Sc. Accounting, B.Sc. Nursing and B.Sc. Computer Science to her programme portfolio. The Committee also recommended the adaptation of the Policy Model of the Distance Learning Centre (DLC) of the University of Ibadan.
The selection of B.Sc. Intelligence and Security Studies as the pilot study programme was based on need assessment of the Nigerian educational market. It was observed and identified that the current security challenges in the country is based on lack of intelligence gathering. Much more, there are many security agencies operatives in the public and private sector of the country with great number of workers, who need adequate training in Intelligence and Security.
The Director Academic Planning Unit (DAP) of the University, Professor Yekini Olawaiye Lawal on behalf of the ODL Committee, applied to the University Senate for the approval of the establishment of ABUAD ODL Centre; and accordingly, the University Registrar communicated the Senate approval to the DAP on the 20th of December, 2018. Afterwards, the University, through the office of the Vice Chancellor, communicated her intent to the office of the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC) on the 18th of February, 2019, which was so acknowledged by the Commission on the 26th of March, 2019.
The ABUAD ODL Centre struck a deal and entered into a strategic partnership with the University of Ibadan Distance Learning Centre (UIDLC), through the duo’s parent institutions in April 2019, and was formalized in June, 2019 after a courtesy call from the UI DLC contingent of five members, led by th Professor Oyesoji Aremu, the Director, UI DLC, on the 29th of May, 2019.
Following this strategic partnership, the core ABUAD ODL staff, course writers, library staff, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) unit staff and Academic Planning unit workers attended a three-day training programme at the University of Ibadan Distance Learning Centre, on Fundamentals and Operations of Distance Learning Programme, between 14th and 16th of May, 2019. The ABUAD Directorate of Open and Distance Learning cascaded the knowledge gained at the UIDLC, to other course writers and ABUAD staff relevant to Open and Distance Learning operations, on August 30 , 2019, on the same subject matter.
By the 9th of October, 2019, the Course Material Writers Remuneration Policy of the Centre was approved and signed into effect by the Founder and President of the University, Aare Afe Babalola (SAN), subsequent to the course materials development meeting held with the Founder by the University Registrar (Lady Christie Oluborode), the Centre Director, (Prof. Tolulope Ogunnusi) and her deputy (Dr. Emmanuel Ayodeji), ICT Director, (Dr. Bayo Ogundipe), and the ICT programmer (Mr. Muyiwa Oladimeji). This approval was given for the development of forty- two (42) ITS course materials with five (5) General Studies (GST) course materials to be adopted from UI DLC. These are GST 113 (Logic, Philosophy and Human Existence), GST 114 (Nigerian People and Culture), GST 115 (Use of Library and ICT), GST 118 (History and Philosophy of Science) and GST 212 (Practical Entrepreneurial Skill). The approval also covers the twenty-five (25) course materials for M.Sc. Finance programme. Immediately after the document was signed into effect, by the 10th of October, 2019, carefully selected course material writers were commissioned, and were given their respective commissioning letters, duly signed by the University Registrar.
By March-April 2020, the draft copies of most of these course materials had been received from the course writers. By May, 2020 (essentially during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown), the leadership of the ABUAD Directorate of Open and Distance Learning used their expertise to train all the core ODL staff, as at then, on publishing fundamentals. As such, the ODL staff did the formatting of the course materials, and conversion of some of them to ODL format. By the end of July, 2020, editorial work on the course materials began. The Centre engaged the services of a content editor (i.e. Book Review Editor) and a Book Illustrator in November, 2020. Essentially, by the end of March, 2021, all the forty- two (42) ITS course materials were Camera Ready (CRD).
Essentially, the journey of a thousand miles starts with a step, and ABUAD ODL Centre has plunged into this philosophy, thus commencing full operations by the 2021/2022 Academic Session.