OUR FIRST AIM AS SOMA IS TO DELIVER QUALITY EDUCATION TO EVERYONE,ANYWHERE AND AT ANYTIME.
Vianny
Kamara-administrative assistant “our
first aim as SOMA is to deliver quality online education to everyone, anywhere
and at any time”. (Photo:
courtesy of NYUMBANI)
What is Online Education?
Online education is a type of
educational instruction that is delivered via the internet to students using
their home computers, tabloids or smart phones. During the last decade, online
studies have become popular alternative for a wide range of nontraditional
students, include those who want to continue working full-time or raising
families. Most of the time, online degree programs and courses are offered via
the host school's online learning platform, although some are delivered using
alternative technologies. Although there are subtle dissimilarities, the main
difference between online and traditional learning is the fact that online
education liberates the student from the usual trappings of on-campus degree
programs — including driving to school, planning their schedule around classes,
and being physically present for each sequence of their coursework.
Uganda is one
of the countries with a fast rising education system with close to 6 million
students enrolled in different education institutions across the country.
Education particularly institutional learning has become a necessity for
Ugandans as the economy is growing and this calls for a skilled labor force
that can effectively work in various sectors like agriculture, tourism and
energy that are the backbone of Uganda.
Education is
increasingly developed from the time when universal Primary education was
introduced in the late 90’s up to now when students are increasingly adapting
to new methods and forms for learning and revision. One of the major challenges
that Uganda has faced is the continuous use of ineffective revision material
and learning material to enable students understand what they learn in
classroom and excel academically. Poor academic performance in Ugandan schools
is attributed majorly to lack of enough reading content for students to relate
to hence hindering learning and resulting to academic failures. This is
evidently seen as students at primary level, secondary level and university
level fail exams prepared by their school teachers and the ones at national
level which are prepared by the Uganda National Examination Board.
Organizations
and companies in Uganda have reported high expenses that are involved in
organizing seminars, workshops, refresher courses and trainings for their
employees. Costs related to organizing workplace place include transport costs,
accommodation, hire of training venue and meals for the participants all which
expenditures and cause losses to big companies in Uganda as well as startups.
Soma eLearning is an online educational
platform that seeks to tackle the challenge of poor academic performance by
enabling students access to paid learning content (course notes, textbooks),
assignments prepared by professional Ugandan teachers from across the country
and as well facilitates workplace learning to enable employees attend online
organizational trainings from anywhere through the use of their phones, tablets
and computers. Our aim is to enable students make constructive revision through
the use of mobile phones, tablets and computers by accessing lesson.notes,
tutorials ,Coursenotes , answers and question guides , short tests and mini
exams prepared by Ugandan teachers in written, audio and video formats.
Students sign up to the platform and get the chance to choose content of their
choose from kindergarten to university level and use for revision purposes. Our
teachers are form different schools with a vast knowledge base that we believe
is helpful for students to refer to in regards to the content and the lesson
that they have prepared.
The platform
has an interface that enables organizations and companies prepare online
trainings for their employees. The training managers authorized by the
organizations sign up on behalf of the company or organizations and carefully
prepare trainings for the employees. Employees are invited through a training
link to sign up and complete the modules designed by the training manager of
their organization. Employees are in position to use their mobile phones,
tablets and computers to sign up and attend the training from wherever they are
at any time which eliminates the costs incurred by the companies to organize
physical trainings , seminars and courses for their employees hence a cost
effective way to conduct workplace learning.
Considering the
increased use of mobile money for making payments and transfer of funds in Uganda.
Soma elearning platform is integrated with the MTN Mobile money and Airtel
Money Systems to enable users to make easy payments for the learning content
from anywhere by use of their mobile phones. This shall ease the learning
process and enable students improve self-managed digital learning as they will
access revision material from anywhere at any time of their convenience.
Soma Elearning
platform is making a ground contribution the transformation for the education
system in Uganda through digital learning and continues to foster students learning
and workplace learning through its well-designed interfaces and give the user
ease to make ground research , revision and effectively improve on their
learning. Subscribe for our Digital learning services today and experience our
learning oriented features that facilitate fast track and improved digital
learning.
WHATS THE DEFERENCE WITH SOMA
The entire team of SOMA and their desire to put up and extend
education to every Ugandan and non-Ugandan is quite remarkable for me, with
very limited resources this team of young dedicated youth have tirelessly
worked together to put up the best revised content from the top teachers,
organizational and company consultants and the most updated national syllabus to
deliver the best quality material for education at the click of a button.
SOMA is not the first online study plat form online but I can
guarantee you, it is the cheapest of them all, the reason we did it that way,
is because our first aim as SOMA is to deliver quality online education to
everyone, anywhere and at any time, trying to fill up the gap when a child has
missed class because school fees is not paid on time, we as SOMA shall be there
to support that child at that time because we value the fruits of education
first than the value education cost, that’s the reason we are extremely cost
efficient.
BENEFITS OF SOMA E-LEARNING
Kigere Kavuma Julius-Creative
Manager “Ideas are the new natural resources of the 21st
century” (photo:
courtesy of NYUMBANI)
The current
challenges facing traditional colleges and universities, including higher
tuition and budget cuts have caused many students to search for alternatives.
With nearly three million students currently enrolled in
fully online study programs and six million taking at least one online course
as part of their degree program, online education has clearly become one of the most popular higher education
alternatives. The continually improving reputation of online learning has also
helped fuel its expansion, as initial skepticism has faltered in the face of evidence that shows that online learning can be
just as effective as face-to-face education.
All of this
means that students, from working professionals to recent high school
graduates, find many reasons to take all or some of their courses online. Below
are advantages to online learning.
Lower total
costs: Online programs can be a more affordable option than traditional
colleges. Though not all online programs have less expensive net tuition prices
than traditional colleges, associated costs are almost always less expensive.
For example, there are no commuting costs, and sometimes there is also not any
required course materials such as textbooks because those are often available
for free online. In addition, many colleges and universities have begun to accept credits earned via free massive open
online courses (MOOCs), the most recent advance in online education. Free
online courses such as these can help students fulfill general education
requirements at little to no cost.
More comfortable learning environment:
Commercials that featuring online students studying in the pajamas only skim
the surface of one of the primary benefits of online education: there are no
physical class sessions. Lectures and other materials are electronically sent
to the student, who will then read them and complete assignments. Students will
not have to fight traffic, find parking spaces, and leave work early to go to
class, or miss important family time.
Convenience and flexibility:
Online courses give students the opportunity to plan their study time around
the rest of their day, instead of the other way around. Students can study and
work when they are at their peak energy, whether that’s early morning or late
at night. Course material is always accessible online, so there’s no need to
schedule special trips to a library either. All of this makes online learning a
good option for students who need to balance their work and family commitments.
More
interaction and greater ability to concentrate: While there is
contradictory evidence about the rate of online student participation versus
participation in traditional courses, one thing is certain: online courses
offer shy or more reticent students the opportunity to participate in class
discussions or chats with more ease than face-to-face class sessions. Some
students even report that online courses are easier to
concentrate in because they are not distracted by other students and classroom
activity.
Avoid commuting: During
snowstorms and thunderstorms, colleges may cancel classes; if they don’t, you
run the risk of getting hurt in dangerous driving conditions. Rather than miss
important class sessions, students in online courses can always “attend” by
participating on discussion boards or in chat sessions, turn in their work on
time, and watch lectures or read materials. Many students also find that the
amount they save on fuel costs can be substantial if they don’t have to commute
to a physical campus in general, no matter what the weather conditions may be.
Improve your technical skills:
Even the most basic online course requires the development of new computer
skills, as students learn to navigate different learning management systems
(LMS) and programs. The skills students learn to participate in their online
courses translate to many professions, including creating and sharing
documents, incorporating audio/video materials into your assignments,
completing online training sessions, etc.
Ideas are the new natural resources of the 21st century,
that is SOMA in nut shell, as one of the individuals who came up with this
idea, we first had to pass through diversity each of us individually, some of
us couldn’t afford school due to high school fees and at the same time trying
to look for a job or doing a job that pays you pea nuts and it’s not on your
passion either, so we sat together one day as people who share the same
challenges and asking ourselves how are we going to stop this hardships. After
months of discussing and deliberating, we came up with an entrepreneurial
solution that both benefits the society greatly, something that is of our
passion and something that earns us not very much but enough.
SOMA eLearning since the deliberations were made, it has
tremendously made a lot of impact to people seeking knowledge, the first impact
it has made is eliminating the economic status ‘to who gets the quality
education, as one of the funding reasons of SOMA eLearning is to close the gap
between the poor and the rich when it comes to getting quality education as we
made sure it is absolutely affordable and accessible.
The online plat form is made in a way that the teachers who
share their content are appreciated by acknowledging them on the plat form and
through the proceeds received by
subscribers and it has helped teachers compare notes with each other through
the online teachers page, which we believe it is putting uniformity in the flow
of the syllabus system national wide, because the number of teachers at SOMA eLearning
is big enough to raise an alarm if there
is a poor flow of the class room education delivery system through the
comparison of their notes online, gratefully that incidence has not occurred.
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