India-Samoa Centre successfully trials courses

By Hyunsook Siutaia 09 July 2020, 3:00PM

The India-Samoa Centre of Excellence in Information Technology [C.E.I.T.] at the National University of Samoa's Maritime School has successfully completed the piloting of three courses.

The three courses are the Office Automation, Advanced Web Technology and Business Computing.

They were trialled by the C.E.I.T. and is supported by both the Governments of Samoa and India in association with the National University of Samoa [N.U.S.] and the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing at the NUS Ocean Campus at the School of Maritime, Mulinuu.

In a live Talanoa session streamed through the N.U.S. web page, Shilpa Taneja from the India-Samoa C.E.I.T. said the courses were successfully completed in the first semester and they received positive feedback. 

"So we have successfully completed our three courses, in the first semester and we got very positive feedback from the students," she said. "We have provided them with the option of having the classes part-time in the evening and they were given hands-on experience on all these technologies and the skill set. 

"I am really happy to share that almost all of them have passed with very good marks in all these courses." 

Despite the positive outcome from the trials, Ms Taneja said the COVID-19 pandemic affected the students’ classes in the three courses.

"We faced a lot of challenges because of this pandemic because many of the students didn’t have access to laptops or the system at home and they were not available with data," she added. "And so to help them, we conducted extra classes so that they can practice well and improve on their skills.”

Dr Edna Temese – who was one of two N.U.S. staff who attended and completed a six-month C.D.A.C. training in Pune, India – explained that for the courses that are offered, only those who have completed a bachelor's degree are eligible to enrol. 

"For instance, if you have graduated with a bachelor of computing or information technology or engineering and you want to further your studies in the same skill, maybe for website designing then this is the pathway you take," she emphasised. "For Business Computing and Office Automation, we’ve lowered the eligibility criteria to help students who have completed Year 13 but are still wanting to further their understanding of Microsoft Office. 

"However, they must have fully completed Year 13 should have also taken computing as a studied subject and then you’ll be eligible for these two courses."

For the second semester, they have advertised 10 courses which will become available. However, the requirement is that a course should have 10 students enrolled otherwise it would not be taught if it was less. 

According to Dr Edna, because these courses are quite new, they are available at an affordable price. Registration fee is $200 and course fee $500. But for the Office Automation course, tuition fee is $300 as it is taught in a shorter period of time compared to the other courses. 

By Hyunsook Siutaia 09 July 2020, 3:00PM

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