Integrating E-learning in African Universities
Today there is no more doubt about the role of educational technologies as a means to enable higher education institutions to increase the outreach and the quality of their programmes significantly. The introduction of e-learning however, greatly affects the organisational culture of higher education institutions.
That is why the United Nations University Vice Rectorate in Europe (UNU-ViE) in collaboration with the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the support of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) invited e-learning experts and representatives of African National Higher Education Commissions, the Interuniversity Council of East Africa
(IUCEA) as well as university leaders from all over Africa to the UN Campus in Bonn. In the course of a highly interactive 3-day expert meeting they debated the potential and challenges of e-learning.
In the workshop entitled "Integrating E-Learning: Key Challenge for HE Governance" from 30 September - 02 October 2009, the 30 participants from about a dozen sub-Saharan African countries were brought together to discuss a topic that affects professionals from different fields – e-learning experts, lecturers as well as Vice-chancellors of African universities: What does the introduction of e-learning mean for a university?
Day 1: The Current State of E-learning in African Universities
In his opening keynote, Tony Bates argued for a very focused and strategic use of e-learning in African universities which struggle with poor and expensive internet infrastructure, relatively high costs of computers, shortage of quality IT staff and e-learning specialists. Participants from Africa assured that even if internet infrastructure was inadequate, universities need to prepare for the challenges of the 21st century by using the potential of e-learning to widen access to and improving the quality of higher education.
In his keynote Paul West from the Commonwealth of Learning shared lessons learned from developing the Virtual University of the Small States of the Commonwealth, particularly with regard to successful collaborations and partnerships, the shared use of open educational resources, and copyright issues.
Tolly Mbwette, Fred Barasa Simiyu, and Cosmas Mnyanyi of the African Council on Distance Education addressed the high costs for internet access at African universities and pointed out the role of the government in lowering prices. They also emphasized that most of the academic staff with experience in face to face delivery requires not only re-training in the conversion of materials into e-learning formats, but also transformation to and appreciation of new approaches to teaching and learning (i.e. the paradigm shift) that are learner-centered.
After the keynotes, participants continued discussions in breakout groups debating the following case studies:
Dr. Fred Barasa Simiyu, Executive Director of the African Council for Distance Education (ACDE): "E-Learning in African Open Universities: A State of the Art Review"
Prof. Mama Foupouagnigni, Head of International Cooperation Service, and professor at the Advanced Teachers' Training College, University of Yaoundé I, Cameroon: “Developing E-learning at the University Yaoundé I, Cameroon”
Speranza Ndege, Director of the E-learning Coordinating Centre, Kenyatta University, Kenya: “E-learning Activities at Kenyatta University, Kenya”
Jessica Aguti, Director, Institute of Adult and Continuing Education, Makerere University/ Sam Siminyu, Head of the Department of Distance Education, Makerere University: “E-learning at Makerere University, University”
Philise Rasugu, AVU Programs Officer/Assistant to AVU Rector The African Virtual University, Kenya: “E-learning Activities of the African Virtual University”
Applying the technique of “world café” for this session, participants used the opportunity to inform themselves about cases from different contexts by rotating from case study to case study and listening to the story the presenter wanted to share.
Day 2: Management and Governance of E-learning
Day two of the workshop focused primarily on management and governance of e-learning through discussion in both plenary and breakout sessions.
In order to get a better understanding of the challenges that e-learning poses for the university management, participants were asked to engage in a vision building exercise on how their ideal “University 2.0” would look like.
When sharing their vision with other participants, a range of common characteristics of this next generation of universities emerged. For many participants such a future generation of universities would use a student-centered learning approach, blended learning, promote critical thinking, lifelong learning, emphasizing quality and innovation, be open to the global population and engage with the local as well as with the international community.
In breakout sessions participants discussed in-depth the following topics:
Paul West, Director of Knowledge Management & Information Technology, Commonwealth of Learning (COL): “How May E-learning Affect University Business Models – How to Deal With Offerings from International Providers?”
Sam Siminyu, Head of the Department of Distance Education, Makerere University: “Internal Management: How may E-learning Impact on the University Structures in African Universities?”
Erick Tambo de Gankam, University of Yaoundé 1 and FernUniversität Hagen, Germany: “External Management: Sharing and Collaborating Across Universities”
Thomas Hülsmann, Center for Lifelong Learning (C3L), Carl-von-Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Germany: “Innovative Teaching and Learning Skills and Expectations in an E-learning Area”
These highly participatory sessions allowed for intense discussion and were facilitated by UNU staff, with reports back from the groups. All breakout sessions were followed by an overall analysis of the discussions on the following day.
Day 3: Quality Assurance and E-learning
On day three of the workshop Dr. Ulf-Daniel Ehlers, Vice-President of the European Foundation for Quality in E-Learning (EFQUEL), introduced the topic of quality assurance and e-learning. He stressed the two strands of the current debates: Quality FOR e-learning and quality THROUGH e-learning.
The later refers to using e-learning as a tool for improving education, i.e. not just digitalising our lecture slides and distributing them to our students, but empowering employees in an organisation to become knowledge workers and empowering students to become active members of today’s knowledge society. His presentation clearly highlighted that quality goes beyond evaluation frameworks.
In the following panel discussion, experts discussed their key priority for quality in e-learning in Africa. In working groups the participants continued the discussion with the following speakers on various aspects which are all related to quality and e-learning:
Prof. Mayunga Nkunya, Executive Secretary, Tanzania Commission for Universities: “Developing Quality: Challenges Encountered and First Solutions Found“
Dr. Fabio Nascimbeni, Director of MENON Research and Innovation Network, Belgium: “The UNIQUe Quality Label for the Innovative and Creative use of ICT in Higher Education”
Paul West, Director of Knowledge Management & Information Technology, COL: “The Quality Assurance Framework at the Commonwealth of Learning”
Miguel Angel González Castañon, Coordinator of the Quality Assurance Unit, Open University of Costa Rica (UNED): “Guidelines for Quality Assurance for Distance Education in Central America”
Way Forward:
Participants are continuing the discussion about e-learning and university management on the wiki Science Connect. Register at the platform, get a password, log in and join the discussion with experts from different backgrounds from all over the world:
http://science-connect.net/. We are interested in learning what you have to say!
More documentation (presentations, reports, agenda, etc.) about the conference will follow soon.