Centre for Open Distance and e-Learning (CODeL)

Federal University of Technology Minna > Centre for Open Distance and e-Learning (CODeL)

The concept of establishing Centre for Open Distance and e-Learning (CODeL) in Federal University of Technology, Minna was born out of the necessity to provide access to higher education to a larger number of interested students presently limited by the existing structure (human and physical resources) or engaged in other life demanding issues. This is in line with the Nigerian National Policy on Education (FRN, 2004) which recognized open and distance learning as a way of providing access to quality university education for those who otherwise would have been deprived through the conventional process. The Federal University of Technology, Minna has demonstrated its commitment to partnership with other tertiary institutions and international educational bodies to promote open and distance learning. This development informed the University Senate’s position to approve the establishment of the Centre for Open Distance and e-Learning (CODeL) in 2011 and the University Council in May, 2012. On the 19^th October, 2015, Governing Board of the Centre for Open Distance and e-Learning (CODeL) was inaugurated by the former Vice-Chancellor, Prof. M. A. Akanji.

Mission

To be a global Centre of excellence in e-learning providing access to flexible, open and long-life learning education.

Vision

The Centre is committed to the delivery of quality distance learning through dynamic and pragmatic training, research and entrepreneur services, driven by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) that would transform Nigeria’s natural resources into goods and services, thus, impacting on our economy and the quality of life of her people positively.

Activities

Staff List

CENTRE DIRECTOR

Phone Number:

Email:

Unit Email:

Dr. Fatimah Jibril Abduldayan is a leading advocate for open science, research data management (RDM), and gender and development in Nigeria. As the Team Lead for LIBSENSE Nigeria, she champions open science practices and drives nationwide capacity-building efforts across academic institutions.

In her role, Dr. Abduldayan leads a dynamic team of Early Career Researchers (ECRs) dedicated to advancing RDM policies, open access publishing, and research assessment reforms. Under her leadership, the group has significantly contributed to the development of coordinated activities that enhance RDM practices and open access adoption in Nigeria.

Dr. Abduldayan actively participates in national and regional initiatives aimed at promoting open science. She has played a pivotal role in establishing a shared repository metadata schema, crafting open access policies for several Nigerian institutions, and organising workshops for librarians, university leaders, editors, and postgraduate students. Her efforts are instrumental in bridging knowledge gaps and fostering sustainable open science practices.

Through her role as the Trade Manager of the FUTMinna Academic Publishing Centre and her collaboration with the West and Central African Research and Education Network (WACREN), Datasphir, and funding from the Open Book Collective, United Kingdom, Dr. Abduldayan has been a catalyst in building a community of practice for open science, and her efforts continue to shape the landscape of open book publishing in Nigeria, ensuring that research outputs are more accessible, ethical, and impactful both locally and globally.

Dr Abduldayan was the immediate past Head of Department, Library and Information Science, Federal University of Technology Minna, Niger State, and the Director, Centre for Open Distance and e-Learning (CODEL), FUT Minna. She is also the newly appointed University Librarian, Nigeria Maritime University, Okerenkoko, Delta State.

She recently concluded a certificate course in Gender and Development Studies at the Policy Innovation Centre, Abuja, Nigeria as her effort towards understanding the gender intersectionality and how it affects women and girls in Africa.

Dr Abduldayan is married and blessed with children.

PAST AND PRESENT HEADS OF DEPARTMENT

Since inception, the Centre has been blessed with notable Professionals to stir the activities of the Centre. The centre had from inception to 2011, Prof. Joseph Odigure as the first Director of the centre. While Prof. A.M Aibinu stirred the activities of the centre from 2014 till 2022. His successor Dr. Julia Echie lead the Centre from 2022 to 2025 and handed over the mantle of leadership to the current Director of the Centre Dr. Fatima Abduldayan.

OBJECTIVES OF THE CENTRE

The objectives of the programme are in line with the National Policy on Education 2004 which shall be to:

Provide access to quality education and equity in educational opportunity for those who otherwise would have been denied.
Meet special needs of employers by mounting special certificate courses for their employees at their workplace.
Encourage internationalization especially of tertiary education.
Ameliorate the effect of internal and external brain drain in the University by utilizing Nigerian expert teachers regardless of their location or places of work.

ADMISSION REQUIREMENT

Candidates seeking admission into the Centre for open Distance and e-Learning (CODeL) degree programme must have the minimum entry requirement. Admission shall be offered during the first and second semesters and shall be the responsibility of the Admission Committee.

There are two modes of admission into the bachelor’s degree Computer Science Programme at the Centre for open Distance and e-Learning (CODeL). These are: The UTME mode and The Direct Entry (DE) mode. Admission requirements for the two modes are subsequently presented herewith.

(a) Compliance with UTME Entry Requirements

Candidates are required to obtain five (5) O’Level credits in English Language, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, and either Biology or Geography in NECO, WAEC or NABTEB in not more than two (2) sittings.

(b) Compliance with Direct Entry (DE) Requirements

Holders of National Diploma (ND) in Computer Science/Engineering with a minimum of Lower Credit may qualify for admission into 200 Level.
Holders of HSC/GCE-A Level/IJMB with credit passes in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry may also qualify for admission into 200 Level.
Holders of Higher National Diploma (HND) with at least Upper Credit in Computer Science may qualify for admission into 300 Level.

Note:(i) The DE requirements are in addition to the O’Level grades stipulated in (a) above. Also, DE students must take and pass the General Studies courses offered in 100 and 200 Levels.

(ii) All candidates for admission must pass the University Post-UTME Screening Exercise.

Programme Structure

The Programme workload for students includes combination of: online Lectures; Tutorials; Practical sessions; Laboratory work, Seminars and Project. Furthermore, at 400 levels, In the second semester, Computer Science students undertake Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) for six months. At 500 level, students are expected to carry out independent project in their areas of specialization.

Mechatronics Engineering students will be evaluated through:

Continuous Assessment which is made up of various Assignments and Tests. It forms 40% of the student’s Evaluation.
Examination: This makes up 60% of the Total Student’s Evaluation.
In order to qualify for a course examination, a student shall be required to achieve 75% attendance of all the scheduled classes for the course.

Duration of the Programme

A students can only graduate after meeting the minimum graduation requirements. The Bachelor of Technology degree in Computer Science is designed to last for a minimum of five (5) years(10 semesters) and maximum of 10 years(20 semesters) for a UTME candidate, minimum of four (4) years(8 semesters) and maximum of eight(8) years(16 semesters) for a Direct Entry (200 level) candidate and minimum of three (3) years(6 semesters) and maximum of six (6)years(12 semesters) for a Direct Entry (300 level) candidate.

Students’ Registration

Students’ registration is carried out online on the CODeL portal at htpp://futminna.edu.ng/codel Online payment will be accepted using master Card, ATM cards, etc. All registration processes will be done online once a student paid the school fees. Students are expected to register for courses after they must have completed payments for the semester.

The course registration portal contains the list of all courses offered in each programme. Students are expected to register a maximum of 24 credit units per semester which must include a minimum of one elective course per semester.

Academic registration shall cease a day before the matriculation exercise. Students must register at the beginning of the session within the first to third (1^st – 3^rd) weeks of the semester. Those that were not registered would not be allowed for the semester examination.

All fresh and returning students must first complete the Central Registration Exercise before registering for individual courses. Returning students with course deficiencies must first register the deficient courses before proceeding to register other courses for the new session.

At the Centre, all fresh students must produce original copies of their certificates or any certified documentary evidence of their qualifications and must submit photocopies of all their credentials during registration for record keeping. Students should register with names by which they are admitted. The University does not approve change of names except with a written approval from the Registrar.

(a) Procedure For Online Registration

All successful candidates admitted into CODeL programme must visit the University webpage at www.futminna.edu.ng/codel

For the purpose of online registration.

STUDENT STATISTIC AS AT 2024/2025 ACADEMIC SESSION

LEVEL	Gender		Total Number	First Class	Second Class Upper	Second Class Lower	Third Class	Pass
LEVEL	Male	Female	Total Number	First Class	Second Class Upper	Second Class Lower	Third Class	Pass
100 LEVEL	6	NIL	6		2	1	3
200 LEVEL	12	1	13			6	4	3
300 LEVEL	5	1	6			4	2
400 LEVEL	14	1	15		3	2	5	5
500 LEVEL	NIL	NIL	0
Total	37	3	40

CORE STAFF DISTRIBUTION IN THE DEPARTMENT

Name	Rank	Specialization
Fatimah Jubril ABDULDAYAN (Ph.D)	Lecturer	Information Technology and systems and Research Data management
Danjuma MOHAMMED	Principal Assistant Registrar	Administrator
Abdulhakeem YUSUF (PhD)	Senior Lecturer	Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Courseware Development
Jibril Abdullahi BALA (PhD)	Lecturer II	Control System Design, Artficial Intelligence, Mechatronics System Design and Precision Agriculture
Bilikisu ABUBAKAR	Principal System Analyst	Information Technology, Cybersecurity and system Analyst
Bushrar Temitope OJOYE (PhD)	Senior Programmer	System Analyst, Instructional System Design, Courseware Development, Educational Technology.
Kadinebari DOME	Assistant Lecturer	Instructional System Design, Courseware Development, Mobile learning, and Information Technology.

CODeL Career Development/ workshops for staff of Federal University of Technology Minna

S/NO	TITLE	VENUE	YEAR
1.	Workshop on Moodle Application and Administration.	Centre for Open and Distance e-Learning, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria	8^th – 10^th October, 2018
2.	3-day Workshop on Design and Development of Courseware; Tutoring Skills; and Use of ICT in ODL. Held on the 27^th February – 1^st March, 2019	Centre for Open and Distance e-Learning, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria	27^th February – 1^st March, 2019
3.	Workshop on Open Educational Resources, Held on the 13^th March, 2019	Centre for Open and Distance e-Learning, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria	13^th March, 2019
4.	Workshop on Test and Measurement in ODL. Held on the 2^nd – 23^rd April, 2019	Centre for Open and Distance e-Learning, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria	2^nd – 23^rd April, 2019
5.	Workshop on Concept of Open and Distance Learning. Held on the 24^th January, 2019	Centre for Open and Distance e-Learning, Federal University of Technology, Minna. Nigeria	24^th April, 2019
6.	Workshop on Management Information System. Held on the 20^th May, 2019.	Centre for Open and Distance e-Learning, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria	20^th May, 2019
7.	Workshop on Essentials in Running Open and Distance Learning. Held on the 3^rd June, 2019	Centre for Open and Distance e-Learning, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria	3^rd June, 2019
8.	Workshop on Online Facilitation Training. Held on the 10^th June, 2019	Centre for Open and Distance e-Learning, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria	10^th June, 2019
9.	Workshop on E-tutor Training. Held on the 5^th July, 2019	Centre for Open and Distance e-Learning, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria	5^th July, 2019
10.	Workshop on Roles and Responsibilities of ODL Staff. Held on the 12^th July, 2019	Centre for Open and Distance e-Learning, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria	12^th July, 2019
11.	Learner Support Strategies in ODL. Held on the 19^th -21^st December, 2019	Centre for Open and Distance e-Learning, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria	19^th-21^st December, 2019
12.	5-day workshop on Open Distance and e-Learning for Lecturers. Held on the 27^th February – 2^nd March, 2012	Centre for Open and Distance e-Learning, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria	27^th February – 2^nd March, 2012
13.	Development and Validation of Institutional Open Educational Resources (OER) Policy	Centre for Open and Distance e-Learning, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria	17^th February, 2023.