SAIDE Services
Sectors in which we work
Although the use of distance education methods is most widespread in Higher Education and Teacher Education, we also work in the sectors of Early Childhood Development, Community Education (including ABET), Schooling, and Further Education and Training (Technical and Vocational Education).
Who we work with
We work with/for both public and private educational providers, government departments and non-governmental organizations, and local and international funders.
We offer the following services
- Assist in developing policy in distance education and open learning and the use of technology
- Contribute to policy processes from this perspective
- Conduct systemic reviews of distance education provision and the use of technology in education.
- Provide support to developing programmes in which the principle of open and flexible learning is balanced with the provision of sufficient learner support
- Lead collaborative course design processes in which learner support, assessment and course materials are integrated
- Coordinate materials development in a team according to a planned process
- Guide practitioners in the development process through extensive feedback, development testing and critical review
- Make the materials available for the widest possible use, preferably as Open Educational Resources.
- Identify and make available on SAIDE’s OER Africa platform high quality OER to meet the needs of African educational providers
- Stimulate and/or coordinate projects for the adaptation and development of OER
- Encourage institutions to develop policy that supports the use, creation and sharing of OER
- Support and contribute to networks and communities of practice involved in the development and use of OER.
Build capacity
- In programme planning, course design, materials development, assessment and learner support for both paper-based and online distance education delivery
- In management of distance education and costing
- In quality assurance
- In policy development.
- Research the use of technology in education
- Encourage and support appropriate use of technology in education.
Conduct monitoring and formative evaluation exercises
- Work with the client to develop the evaluation plan, including appropriate indicators
- Collect and analyse both quantitative and qualitative information systematically and sensitively
- Feed the information back to the client to improve the initiative.
- Refine understandings of open learning, distance education and the use of technology in education
- Build an internationally recognised distance education collection with both hard copy and digital publications
- Identify relevant information which is shared through our website, newsletters and online catalogue
- Network with the community of distance educators.