The world is going digital at an astronomical speed, and every aspect of human activities is taking up space on the World Wide Web (www). But while this dramatic change, which has brought new perspectives to social, economic, educational and other activities, has taken a stronghold in most parts of the globe, other places are lagging far behind. Liberia is one of those places.
For the country to position itself to catch up with the rest of the world, Deputy Speaker of Liberia’s 54th National Legislature, Cllr. J. Fonati Koffa, said it is high time that tertiary institutions infuse (incorporate) information communication technology (ICT) into their business education modules or curriculums.
“The world is technologically advancing with massive speed, and we think it is incumbent upon our institutions of higher education in the country to begin to develop modules that will accommodate the new technological wave in the business,” Cllr. Koffa stated.
Cognizant of the growing importance of ICT in every aspect of human development, the Deputy Speaker recently launched an appeal to the National Commission on Higher Education (NCHE) for higher education institutions to include or infuse “Technology or IT” into curriculums and modules of granting degrees in Business Administration and Management across the country.
The Deputy Speaker stated that business colleges need to redesign their education and teaching in order to facilitate a new generation of business students, while at the same time, several powerful tools such as online assessments or virtual classroom tools are made available for business teachers to enrich the learning experience of their students.
Speaking on Sunday to over 150,000 viewers as one of the Keynote Speakers at the just-ended virtual conference of the World Business Angels Investors Week, Cllr. Koffa said in Liberia they will continue to push for universities and other schools of higher education to begin developing curriculum in which the business modules accommodate advances in technology so that when they come to the table with investors and financiers they will understand the uniformed approach.
“We will continue to advocate for a curriculum in higher education that accommodates business leaders with a good technology background,” he added
“No longer will a MBA or Business degree be sufficient; all of our business leaders must have some fundamental understanding of technology — they must have some understanding; and the infusion of technology into the course curriculum of business management,” he notes, adding that the integration of ICT is critical for the attainment of rich learning and hands-on experiences for future business managers.
However, in order to provide a rich learning experience for a new generation of business students, it is important that content, technology and pedagogy are equally balanced, experts say.
It is no secret that the world continues to evolve, it has been established without fundamental knowledge of technology, business operations can’t run smoothly, which can mean the difference between a company’s success and its failure. This means for a more rounded business education cannot be overemphasized.
Business Education is a program of instruction that consists of two parts: office education—a program of vocation for office careers, and general Business Education—a program which provides the recipients with competencies and skills needed in managing personal business affairs and using the services of the business world.
ICT, as applied to Business Education, involves the use of networks, expert systems and artificial intelligence in what is now known as electronic commerce (e-commerce) or electronic business (e-communication business).
E-commerce helps to facilitate the exchange of information, goods and services between companies and their customers. Business operations are much dependent on ICT. This is because the impact of communication and information technology is felt in all aspects of an organization’s life from manufacturing to the service sector, particularly marketing.
“This is why we need to start teaching our business students the importance of technology in their field,” Koffa said. “We hope the NCHE and the administrators of our universities will start to look at our proposal and begin to act now. We don’t have time.”
Also, the Deputy Speaker has called on world business leaders to focus on the advancements of new business modules, arguing that the traditional modules growing and developing businesses have been left behind.
“It is not a secret, that generally, those who have the best ideas, maybe not necessarily be those who have the best finances; It’s also not a secret that the traditional business modules of growing and developing businesses have been left behind by the advancement in technology.”
The Deputy Speaker intoned that it is Incumbent upon higher education to begin to develop modules that says to those in higher education, that the concept of how businesses have developed have drastically changed; and without the ingenuity that technology has infused in the business modules, only few businesses will survive.
Cllr. Koffa challenged investors to approach programs and training that will be in line with the current wave of technological advancements in the business world.
“We have just learned that the artificial intelligence technology is rapidly advancing and those involved in the AI movement are indeed the new captains of industry; businesses must now take that approach, ” the Deputy Speaker explains.
He further noted, “We have all seen that businesses with advanced technology are the ones which proceeded to be topnotch and fortified companies; therefore the higher education leaders should be able to incorporate existing technologies in existing business curriculum to ensure that all those, including inventors and those involved in the bottle line chain of productivity are people who are well knowledgeable of the new business revolution.”
Meanwhile, the advantages or benefits derived for teaching ICT in Business Education, which Koffa believes the country would leverage when his proposal is accepted, include the exchange of information amongst members of the business community and between them and the outside word; interaction between lecturers and students; effective storage and retrieval of information and it makes information easily accessible at a very fast rate thereby enabling pre-serve Business Education teachers to acquire necessary concepts without barrier.
“Those advantages help in creating higher profits and opportunities for business expansion and economic growth,” Koffa said.
Unfortunately, the adoption of ICT in Liberian universities has remained a mirage due to its slow pace of acceptance and use. Little knowledge of ICT usage is observed among business teachers, as their students prove naive of e-learning practices in their training.
This has been attributed to such factors as inadequate fund available to schools for training of their teachers in ICT skill acquisition, high cost of ICT equipment and electronic devices and lack of stable electricity.
