INSIDE THE COMPUTER LAB at the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG), students work on their assignments with focused intensity. One concentrates on generating data, while another wrestles with how to best format a map.
All are undergraduate students majoring in the university’s Demography and Population Studies Program, enrolled in the popular third-year course entitled Computer Applications in Demography and Population Analysis. A software package called DevInfo lies at the core of the course.
The innovative course is the brainchild of Eleina Butuna, Lecturer in Demography and Population Studies, who first became acquainted with DevInfo after attending the first DevInfo training workshop in PNG in 2006.
“After the workshop, I became very interested in the DevInfo software,” explains Ms. Butuna. “As the official MDG monitoring tool, this software obviously had national implications – something that I felt that the students in our program would benefit greatly from learning.”
Ms. Butuna shared her thoughts with officials at UNICEF and the Department of National Planning and Monitoring, who concurred that learning DevInfo would be a definite asset for graduates seeking to gain experience in using technical tools.
Encouraged by their feedback and support, she submitted a proposal to the University Council for a new course offering within the school’s Demography and Population Studies Program.
The Council approved her submission, and the UN and the Department provided funding to set up a new demography computer laboratory. Ms. Butuna began teaching the new course in 2008.
“The course has been offered every year since then,” says Ms Butuna, her excitement evident. “On average, 15 students are enrolled every year. Most come in with no computer experience at all, so they are very eager to learn any kind of computer skills – anything to help them get equipped with tools for the field.”
Of the 60 students who have taken this course and graduated, several have reported that their database skills have proven useful in subsequent employment with the Department of National Planning and Monitoring, the Department of Education, and the Department of Environment.
The course has been met with such success that the university recently approved plans to offer a second course this year.
Ms Butuna’s greatest joy? “To see my students enjoying this course so much,” she replies with a grin. “Once they enter the lab for their weekly three-hour computer session, they don’t want to leave at all!”
source: Keith Jackson’s PNG Attitude – State of art demography software at UPNG