A one-week intensive training program on the Tertiary Education Research and Applications Systems (TERAS) platform has kick started at Plateau State University Bokkos.
The high-impact capacity building workshop, funded by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), is designed to fast-track the institution’s transition into a fully integrated “Smart Campus.”
The training kicked on at the university campus ICT Directorate commencing with a specialised session for management staff, deans, and directors, focusing heavily on the technical setup, configuration, and structural customisation of core digital modules.
Declaring the week-long event open, the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor Shedrack Gaya Best, challenged members of the management to lead by example in driving the digital migration. Represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Administration, Professor Keziah Ayuba, the Vice-Chancellor reminded participants that intellectual evolution is the ultimate hallmark of academia.
“As academics and administrators, upscaling our skills and constantly learning is not just a routine, it is our norm,… .Therefore, we must sit down, listen, and completely absorb this training to bridge the intervention gap between traditional teaching methods and global best practices.”
Providing a detailed breakdown of the technological revolution hitting the campus to newsmen, the Director of ICT at PLASU,Sati Dapel, revealed that the one-week training is “heavily loaded” to systematically onboard the management, heads of departments, lecturers, and students onto cutting-edge federal government-backed applications.
According to Dapel, PLASU is deploying world-class Learning Management Systems (LMS), including the renowned ‘Blackboard’ and ‘Moodle’ platforms, courtesy of TETFund. Most notably, the university is introducing an artificial intelligence innovation known as “Distinction.”
Explaining that it is the simplicity that, the AI brings to the academia, the ICT Director noted , “With the ‘Distinction’ AI integration, a lecturer can simply log into the platform, type a course code, input the title, and write a brief description of the learning objectives. Automatically, the system will generate the entire course content , complete with relevant pictures, instructional videos, course outlines, weekly lecture schedules, and even student assessments. This makes teaching incredibly simple, interactive, and globally competitive.”
The digital overhaul extends far beyond the virtual classroom into raw physical infrastructure. Dapel announced that PLASU is rapidly becoming one of the fastest-growing universities in the region due to an aggressive technological expansion blueprint supported by the Vice Chancellor , Professor Shedrack Best administration.
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Key components of the ongoing smart campus infrastructure include. High-speed fiber-optic cables currently being laid from the ICT Directorate to every single building on the campus,
New servers being deployed to activate free voice and video calls within the campus enclave, allowing seamless, zero-cost communication between students and faculty.
” Construction is underway for a state-of-the-art Smart Hall equipped with advanced interactive boards, synchronised microphones, and specialised speaker systems.
This specialised software Dapel adds , creates a real-time academic corridor between PLASU and international universities, enabling guest lecturers from anywhere across the globe to teach students live in Bokkos.
The phased training schedule will transition from the university management, deans, and directors on day one, to heads of departments on day two, followed by a comprehensive training sweep for the entire lecturing staff, and concluding with hands-on sessions for the student body.
Expressing his profound gratitude, the ICT Director lauded the administrative mettle of the university’s helmsman, “We want to specially thank the university management, particularly the leadership of Professor Shedrack Best, for his visionary foresight. He has given the ICT Directorate an unyielding listening ear and the total administrative backing required to achieve the technological advancement”.
With this robust digital ecosystem taking root, Plateau State University is effectively rewriting its graduate script by ensuring its students learn within a system driven by the same technological realities shaping the modern world.
