Compiled by
Nwokoye Michael FF-MAXLICONI
It is very crucial to seek authentic information from credible sources before taking action just to avoid being misguided by people. There are people who know next to nothing about your questions or who have only a nodding acquaintance with the question concerned but who will always want to answer these questions out of ignorance. Many people have suffered the pain of obtaining wrong pieces of information and of being made to behave like a blind man in a race.
Now, a blind man who is running is prone to such accidents as falling over, trampling on reptiles and so on. And such is the picture of those who are always in a hurry to get one form of spurious information or another. This is especially true for National Open University of Nigeria which many Nigerians claim to know but in the contrary. More so is the fact NOUN is in many ways unique and distinctive among other universities in Nigeria. This uniqueness and novelty has opened it to one form of misinterpretion or another. But the far cry reality is that majority of those who hold such views about the 21st century university build their mentality from the profundity of their ignorance. If this is the case, what exactly is NOUN?
The National Open University of Nigeria is a federal university just like other federally owned universities in Nigeria. It was established by the Acts of Parliament in 1983, suspended but resuscitated in 2002 by president Olusegun Obasanjo. NOUN is the only specialist provider of Open and Distance Learning at the tertiary level in Nigeria. 'Open' means that there are no entry barriers such as UTME, Post Jamb, etc, 'Distance' means that the instructional delivery method is not designed like the classroom setting. A distance learner is removed in time and space from his lecturers. He manages his own reading activities unlike in the conventional system where lecturers have to do these for students.
It is open to reflect its high moral standard. The National Open University of Nigeria is the first of its kinds in West Africa and I strongly believe that with further improvements, it will register its presence in the entire sub-region.
The future of university education in Nigeria lies with the ODL(Open Distance Learning) going by the recent collaboration between NUC and Skulportal Technology, an ICT company based in the United Kingdom. NUC is planning to make six universities: NOUN, UI, UNILAG, UNIMAID, FUTA and OAU to run open distance learning system. Apart from NOUN, whose operation is unimodal, that is, ODL, the other five universities are to operate both the ODL and the traditional classroom system, that is bimodal in operation.
There are numerous misconceptions about National Open university of Nigeria. This is informed by the novelty of open distance learning system in the country. This ignorance has slowed down the decision of many prospective beneficiaries to avail themselves of the opportunities inherent in the system. Some misconceive the school as an exclusive preserve of the rich. Some think it is not recognized. Some think it is owned by a private organization and some other people believe it is meant for graduate students only.
However, each of these interpretations is a pointer to the profundity of people's ignorance about the university. For this reason I will like to wet your already dry appetites by providing the ABC of the 21st century university in order to satisfy your gusto and curiosity about the hows, the whys and the wherefores of the institution.
Aside from people's misconceptions about NOUN, these write ups are intended to prevent new entrants from falling victim to the exploitative tendencies of certain unscrupulous parties who hide under the smokescrene of help to rob the unwary young and the enfeebled old of their hard earned cash due to their ignorance of the intricacies and the dynamics of the university. This work will help you to know whether you are going ultra or you are on course as you make a move to join thousands of smart Nigerians who are currently pursuing various degrees in NOUN.
STUDENT'S PORTAL
Like every other distance learning system, NOUN creates a portal for each student. A portal is an interface (a point of contact) between each student and the university.
Whatever a student would do in NOUN, can only be effected through his portal.
It is like a university gate which, to begin with, must be opened before any student can access the campus.
Whenever a university gate is shut, students are locked out of the university premises. Academic activities then come to a halt.
In the same way, If NOUN should shut down student's portal, every activity comes to a standstill.
So the university student's portal stands between each student and the school.
WHAT IT COSTS IN MONEY TO RUN A PROGRAMME IN NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA
LATEST INFORMATION
For those running LLegum Baccalaureus(LLB) This is to bring to your awareness that the school management has held a meeting on two critical issues raised by the CLE: law library and moot court facilities. NOUN is now putting these structures in place and the VC will thereafter, in conjunction with NUC, visit the CLE to submit the law curriculum of NOUN's Faculty of Law. As it is now, I can smell jubilations in the nearest future.
We wish all our matriculating students every success in their coming ceremony.
BUSINESS OF THE DAY.
The fees paid by a student are in two parts:
1. The fixed part.
This is charged per session and the rate depends on your level. It is fixed in the sense that it must be settled before you can proceed to other stages of registration.
For 100 level students it is #28,500(#22,500 for school fees + #6,000 for JAMB regujarization fee)
2. The flexible part.
This payment is not forced on any student. The amount paid depends on the number of courses you wish to sit within the semester.
Let's take a student X for instance, who wishes to register 3 courses within a semester.
Course 1:
Code. GST 101
Units. 2 units
Reg. Cost. #2,000
Exam Cost.#1,000
Total: #3,000
Course 2:
Code. CSS 132
Units. 3 units
Reg. Cost.#2,500
Exam Cost.#1,000
Total: #3,500
Course 3:
Code. GST 105
Units. 2 units
Reg. cost. #2,000
Exam Cost.#1,000
Total: #3,000
Total of flexible part=#3,000+#3,500+#3,000=#9,500
Total cost of registration for the semester:
Fixed Part=#28,500 +
Flexible Part=#9,500
Total=#38,000
You can now see the financial implication of registering 5,7,9,10,12 etc. courses in a semester.
So, no one can tell the exact amount of school fees that you would pay; it all depends on your decision.
TUTOR MARKED ASSIGNMENT(TMA)
TMAs are just assignments. That is, they are not timed on the web site. So, you can do them at any time of your convenience before their closing date.
For each course that you register, there are 4, that is TMA1, TMA2, TMA3 and TMA4. Each TMA has 20 questions. This means that a course has a total of 80 TMA questions.
After completing the four TMAs, you will be graded. The three best of the 4TMAs will be used as your score in continous assessment work which is 30 per cent of the course work.
For instance, if in GST 101 you obtain:
TMA1......14/20
TMA2......16/20
TMA3......15/20
TMA4......18/20
Your three best, that is, 16+15+18 will be selected as 49/60. This will taken as 24.5/30. This means that you already have 24.5 marks out of 100 to support your score in exam.
However, to pass a course, you must obtain, at least, 40 per cent grade in your semester exam. If you score less than 40 per cent you will fail the course nomatter what you obtain in your TMA.
For instance, if a student should obtain:
TMA........28/30
EXAM......25/70
He would, ordinarily, have scored 53/100. However, under NOUN's rules, he would still fail the course because 25/70 which is 36 per cent, is below the required 40 per cent.
In your electronic exams(e-exams), 3 unit courses have 150 questions each while 2 unit courses have 120 questions each.
In grading your overall performance in a particular course:
E.g.1. GST 101
TMA........24/30
EXAM......60/120=60/120*70=35/70
24+35/30+70=59/100
E.g.2. CSS 132
TMA........28/30
EXAM......90/150=90/150*70=42/70
28+42/30+70=70/100
GRADE POINTS
70-100 |A| 5points
60-69 |B| 4points
50-59 |C| 3points
45-49 |D| 2points
40-44 |E| 1point
LATEST INFORMATION
This is to advise NOUITES to be more positive about their studies considering the fact that Distance and E-learning pedagogy is becoming the vogue in the continent of Africa.
On August 20, 2013, the Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufai(now sacked) signed the African Virtual University(AVU) charter which makes Nigeria the 18th member country to sign the charter.
The African Virtual University(AVU) which is an international Distance Learning institution established in 1997 has trained over 43,000 students and built the largest network of Distance and E-learning institutions in over 30 African countries using Information and Communication Technologies(ICT)
Also, do you know that a student of NOUN is currently representing Africa in China? NOUN has just added this to its good reputations this month. You should remember that not too long ago, in Mach this year, NOUN law students defeated all universities in Nigeria by winning the 2013 moot court competition in Nigeria and represented the country in USA in April this year
where they competed with over 80 countries across the world.
You should not also forget in a hurry that NOUN's VC submitted the Law Report of the Law Factulty in July this same year making National Open University of Nigeria the first institution in the country to publish a Law report.
So, you should be more positive about your programmes in the institution.
GPA AND CGPA
GPA denotes grade point average while CGPA denotes cumulative grade point average
The difference between the two lies in the fact that GPA is the standard of your academic performance in a particular semester while CGPA is the standard of your academic performance from the commencement of your programme till date.
CALCULATION OF GPA AND CGPA
I will use three courses to illustrate the technique in order to make it easier for you to understand.
After your TMAs and exams, your academic performance in all the courses you took in a particular semester is called GPA calculated thus:
Course 1:
Code. CSS 132
Grade. 60/100
Points. 4 points
Units. 3 units
GP=3*4=12
Course 2:
Code. LAW 111
Grade. 70/100
Points. 5 points
Units. 2 units
GP=5*2=10
Course 3:
Code. CSS 111
Grade. 50/100
Points. 3 points
Units. 3 units
GP=3*3=9
GPA:
GP for CSS 132=12, GP for LAW 111=10 , GP for CSS 111=9
GPA=total GP/total credit units=12+10+9/3+2+3=31/8=3.88
If in the next semester, you obtain a GPA of 30/7, for instance, your CGPA at that time will be 31+30/8+7=61/15=4.07
CLASSES OF DEGREE
First Class(70-100) CGPA (4.5-5)
Second Class Upper(60-69) CGPA(3.5-4.49)
Second Class Lower(50-59) CGPA (2.4-3.49)
Third Class(45-49) CGPA(1.5-2.39)
THE ELECTRONIC WALLET E-WALLET
This is to inform as many as are lovers of this page 'NOUITES' that this part (part 6) will mark the concluding version of the thread. At the turn of every semester, the entire work will be integrated, revised, updated and re-circulated to make it catch up with time for the benefits of incoming entrants.
Also, as soon as the fishes of this semester's examinations are fried, a new thread shall be introduced:
"DEVELOPING YOUR ANGLO-LINGUISTIC ARMOURY, FOR DISTANCE LEARNERS"
A spirited work meant to greatly develop students' articulate prowess and eloquence in English to distinguish NOUITES in the assemblies of university students in Nigeria. So, check it out after your exams.
BUSINESS OF THE DAY
THE ELECTRONIC WALLET(E-WALLET)
ICT is transfering many tasks and activities to the computer in the present days. Examples are Virtual Office, Video Conference, Electronic Data Interchange(EDI), Electronic Business, Auto-Pilot and what not. E-wallet, also referred to as Digital Wallet is the transfer of your pocket wallet to the computer system. So that rather than keeping money in your pocket wallet, you keep them in your electronic wallet for later use.
Like other ODL systems, NOUN operates the e-wallet for each student. The meaning is that money that is to be paid as school fees is being held for the student so that at the dates of transaction deductions will be made from them in the wallet. By this, the institution acts like a bank to its students. The only difference being that such lodgements can only be directed to school expenses in the future.
In NOUN, e-wallet has two sides: the credit transaction side and the debit transaction side.
1. THE CREDIT TRANSACTION SIDE
In this place, all the payments you make to bank through NOUN'S account no. are shown. The most recent payments appear first while older payments follow behind. Records of payments are made in omnibus, that is, if you pay #60,000 for instance, into NOUN'S account it will be recorded in omnibus i.e. #60,000. It will not be analysed into its component parts.
2. DEBIT TRANSACTION SIDE
In this place, all the deductions you make to your deposits are recorded. The most recent ones appear first while the older deductions follow behind. Deductions are made when you register courses, register exams, make compulsory payments and such things. Here records of deductions are analysed or split into its component parts, that is, if the total deductions you made is #60,000, it will not be recorded as #60,000 but will be broken down into components such as #2,500, #1,000, #6,000, etc untill they add up to #60,000.
At the end of the deductions, the total of debit transactions will automatically be subtracted from the total of your credit transactions to give your e-wallet balance. This balance shows the amount of money that you can commit to further deductions in the future.
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