How the largest distance learning institution in Africa has transformed enrolments and learner retention rates for its remote student body.

• With 600,000 enrolled students, over 150,000 students active online at any point in time, over 2,000 courses offered, and concurrent demand by 30,000 students simultaneously during exam periods, LMS stability and reliability is critical.
• The National Open University of Nigeria chose to outsource its Moodle LMS platform hosting, maintenance and security to LMS specialists and global Certified Premium Moodle partner Catalyst IT.

Challenge

National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) is Africa’s beacon organisation in the eLearning landscape offering over 2000 courses to a record-breaking 600,000 students across the African continent and world-wide.

Here, The Director of Learning Management Systems at NOUN, Dr Lukuman Bello, describes some of the problems that needed to be tackled by his organisation.

“We had been directly hosting our own Moodle LMS platform, but slow log in times were restricting student access; storage capacity was causing some issues; and the number of interruptions to the service our students were experiencing was unacceptable.

“We could not run the risk of interrupted service during peak usage times, which corresponded to exam periods, when we have up to 30 000 students online simultaneously,” states Dr Bello.

Solution

With system issues mounting, and demand for online qualifications increasing, NOUN took the strategic decision to partner with a dedicated Moodle LMS hosting expert.

Explaining Catalyst IT’s approach Dr Bello says: “In 2018 Catalyst IT came in and conducted a proper analysis of NOUN’s existing system and situation. Following this they made recommendations for better hosting sites, with aggregated security and maintenance services,” Dr Bello explains.

“Having a stable and reliable Moodle platform has given us the time, space and confidence to focus on what we do best – the front-end design and delivery of courses and content to provide an excellent learning experience for our students.

“This has now become the hallmark of our partnership and provision,” affirms Dr Bello.

Results and Benefits

Uninterrupted learner experience

A remarkable result for NOUN since working with Catalyst IT has been uninterrupted access to their learning platform for learners and instructors alike. A full six years and counting of 100% system availability is a brilliant achievement, helping to cast NOUN as the most stable and reliable online higher education provider in west Africa.

Rising numbers of enrolments

“With greater system stability comes greater learner confidence, and we have seen this reflected in a steady rise in student enrolments,” comments Dr Bello.

“We have found that our students prefer the convenience, cost effectiveness and flexibility of accessing content online rather than having to travel to physical study centre locations. This gives us the impetus to focus as much as possible on the quality of our instructional delivery,” he says.

Increased focus on continuous improvement of content enhances retention and student satisfaction

Not having to worry about the platform stability has imparted greater confidence amongst the teaching staff also.

“We have certainly expanded the frontiers of content delivery, deploying a variety of resources, media and activities to enhance learner experience,” says Dr Bello.

“Student engagement is critical in the context of distance learning, where attrition rates are naturally very high.

“Nevertheless, we have a globally scattered student body consistently accessing the system 24 hours a day, with brand new enrolments every semester.

“With Catalyst IT’s support we have the confidence to refresh most of our instructional content every semester. This helps us to stay relevant and inviting to our students.

“As a result, our positive student feedback surveys each semester demonstrate how we have definitely gained a positive reputation with our learners,” declares Dr Bello.

Cost effective system capacity

Highlighting a particular benefit of Catalyst IT’s architecture Dr Bello says: “Catalyst provide what is known as elastic storage.

“This means that the bandwidth and capacity of the platform automatically expands and contracts according to user demand. The more traffic, the more it expands, while at quieter times it contracts.

“The benefit of this is two-fold,” Dr Bello outlines.

“Firstly, we can have confidence that the system is scalable and resilient enough for the traffic.

“Secondly it means we don’t have to make an estimated capital investment upfront to provide capacity.

“Instead, we are buying flexibility, peace of mind, and are only paying for the capacity we need when we need it,” asserts Dr Bello.

Next Steps

Describing what’s next for NOUN Dr Bello says: “We wish to engage more with Catalyst IT to expand our instructional delivery process and introduce the capabilities of AI and learning analytics.

“With greater insight into the digital footprint of our learners we will be able to understand what they’re doing and refine our support in the most appropriate way,” he concludes.

See how other leading educational institutions have transformed their online learning experiences with Catalyst IT. Read more case studies to discover the impact our solutions can have on your organisation.