Creating a YouTube channel to teach research methods in Nairobi, Kenya — and beyond

Dr Lydiah Wambugu is a senior lecturer in the University of Nairobi’s School of Open and Distance Learning. She is an educationist and a researcher and has worked at the university for over 14 years.

Dr Wambugu teaches courses in research methods and in monitoring and evaluation. To support her students she has developed her own YouTube channel Research Methods Class with Dr L. Wambugu, through which she publishes her lessons.

Her lessons are designed to be learner-centred, by addressing problems that students raise directly in the class, or those that have been common in previous classes. Each sets out the learning outcomes that students can expect, incorporates interactive elements, and concludes with a summary of what she has covered and what she hopes students have understood. Each lesson lasts around 20-minutes, so that she doesn’t stretch concentration spans.

Dr Wambugu uses conversational language to communicate with learners, explaining what will be covered and encouraging them to feel free to ask any questions in the comment section once the lesson is underway. She commits to answering these later, either through WhatsApp, where she shares the videos and engages students in further question and answer sessions, or in future lessons.

Dr. Wambugu explains that the lectures were motivated by a need to close the gap created in remote delivery, as well as providing a means for students to learn at their own pace and to have materials to come back and refer to when they need.

She observed her students encountering difficulties in grasping the concepts and ideas and how to apply them. “I have realized that students are not able to link theory and practice,” she explains.

Because research methods is a foundational course taken by many students, and could be particularly valuable for those who want to become researchers or consultants, she felt it could have a wide audience. By putting her lessons on YouTube she felt it was also possible to reach a global audience.

Dr Wambugu has used her own resources to develop the channel: she records the lessons by herself with little technical support for editing the videos. She feels that the fact that YouTube is familiar, and internet costs are reasonably affordable, means this mode of teaching can suit learners well.

Interview conducted by Dr Augustine Mwangi, University of Nairobi.