Pharmacology makes NWU teaching history

The subject group Pharmacology successfully presented the Potchefstroom Campus’s first electronic training sessions across international borders.

On 5 and 6 July 2012, Prof Douglas Oliver, Prof Tiaan Brink and a PhD student, Ms Lilly Mokoena (all three of them from the subject group Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy), presented a number of interactive lectures to students in Abuja, Nigeria, by means of Adobe Connect’s e-conference facility.

According to Ms Geraldine Gerhardi, consultant in the Empowerment Section of IT Central, it was quite exciting to offer the information technology support for the e-lecturing session. “Our department is looking forward to provide support to the University by means of e-lecturing in technological and environmentally-friendly progress.”

The pharmacology e-training sessions form part of a series of clinical and research workshops presented in Abuja, Nigeria, en in Accra, Ghana, in the fields of Integrative and Organ Systems Pharmacology and Drug Safety Monitoring – in July 2012 at the All Africa Congress of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (ACP2012).

Prof Douglas, Prof Tiaan, Prof Brian Harvey and the PhD students Ms Lilly Mokoena and Mr Riaan Reay, will join the Congress in Accra during the week of 9-13 July.

The e-training sessions and the congress are part of a larger initiative, “Pharmacology for Africa” (PharfA), driven by pharmacologists from the Potchefstroom Campus under the leadership of Profs Douglas and Tiaan.

Pharmacologists make history: From left are Ms Lilly Mokoena, Prof Tiaan Brink and Prof Douglas Oliver from the subject group Pharmacology in the School of Pharmacy on the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University (NWU). They presented the NWU’s first electronic training sessions for students in Abuja, Nigeria.