UNESCO/UWI

CARIBBEAN UNIVERSITIES PROJECT FOR INTEGRATED DISTANCE EDUCATION
FUNDED THROUGH THE JAPANESE FUNDS-IN-TRUST FOR CAPACITY BUILDING

CUPIDE ENGAGES PROGRAMME AND HUMAN RESOURCE CONSULTANT

The UWI/UNESCO Caribbean Universities Project for Integrated Distance Education (CUPIDE) has engaged the services of Mr. Ronald Nicholas, a consultant with the US-based company, HGM Management & Technologies Inc., to establish base-line data on distance education programme needs common to the five universities participating in the project (University of Technology, Jamaica, University of Guyana, University of Surinam, University Quisqueya [Haiti] and UWI), the learning styles of Caribbean tertiary level students, and the human resource requirements at each of the universities for the delivery of electronically enhanced distance education programmes. He will also be collecting data on similar on-going or planned projects (initiatives) involving the development or enhancement of electronically-based distance education. The consultancy is expected to last for a period of five months, beginning in August 2003.

Funded through the Japanese Funds-in-trust and managed by UWI, in recognition of the need to increase access to the services offered by universities in the Caribbean region, CUPIDE is intended to enhance and develop the human resource and technical capacity at each of the universities to enable the use of information communication technologies (ICTs) for human resource development in the region through the development of quality distance education programmes. In this way, the competitiveness of the region in general and the institutions in particular will be enhanced, participation in the knowledge society increased – not only as users, but also as generators of knowledge – and cost savings realised in the use of the technology for distribution of the course materials and the teaching and administration of programmes.

Mr. Nicholas is a Senior Managing Consultant with HGM Management & Technologies Inc. www.hgmteam.com (a company headed by Jamaican, Horace G. McCormack) and is an experienced information technology leader, senior manager and consultant with over 20 years of experience. He has provided guidance to top management at a variety of highly competitive organizations worldwide regarding information technology best practices, use, design, selection and implementation of appropriate technology solutions, as well as effective leadership. His experience has spanned solutions involving e-learning, e-commerce, distance learning, outsourcing, human resource management, process analysis and optimization, document imaging, content management, infrastructure, applications design and development, Internet, object-oriented and client-server technologies, as well as systems integration. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre, cum laude from Loyola University of Chicago, and a Master of Management from Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University and is a member of the online education faculty for the University of Phoenix.

Mr. Nicholas has already visited Haiti and Jamaica and will be visiting each of the other institutions involved in this project in October to conduct interviews and hold consultations with persons within the universities and in the ministries responsible for tertiary education.