Director of the Centre for Distance Education, Catholic University of Mozambique,Wisdom Machacha & University Librarian, Tendayi Madziya
 
UI PHEA ETI team and Saidefacilitators and the UI Vice Chancellor (4th from the right)
 

UDSM PHEA ETI team and Saide facilitators and the CVL Director (3rd from the left)

 

Wrap-up of 5-Year Education Technology Initiative in 7 African Universities

The Educational Technology Initiative (ETI) aimed to support interventions in African universities to make increasingly effective use of educational technology to address some of the underlying educational challenges facing the higher educational sector in Africa. This five-year project has now concluded with selected outputs from each of the participating HEIs being currently uploaded on the Saide PHEA website under CC licences. Brenda Mallinson reports.

The participating Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) were the Catholic University of Mozambique (UCM), Kenyatta University (Kenya), Makerere University (Uganda), University of Dar es Salaam, (Tanzania), University of Education Winneba (Ghana), University of Ibadan (Nigeria), and University of Jos (Nigeria). The ETI comprised 26 sub-projects spread over the seven institutions, all identified by the institutions themselves as addressing a local need or exploring an opportunity. The project deliverables included a variety of online courses, case studies, institutional policies, research projects, software systems, multimedia learning objects, institutional document digitization, and the development and/or integration of Open Educational Resources.

Concluding Activity 
In 2009, each participating HEI was supported in outlining their current institutional Educational Technology Strategy as a preamble to formulating their PHEA ETI institutional project plans. In the concluding stages of the project, each participating HEI was encouraged to review their institutional Educational Technology Strategy. This was taken up enthusiastically by several of the HEIs whose institutions were in a position to undertake such a revision. Educational Technology Strategy (ETS) revision workshops facilitated by the Saide support team took place in late 2013 at the Catholic University of Mozambique (UCM), University of Ibadan (UI), and University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), with Kenyatta University (KU) planning to undertake theirs in February 2014.

Catholic University of Mozambique(UCM) ETS Revision Workshop
In October 2013, Neil Butcher assisted by Andrew Moore, facilitated the ETS revision workshop at Beira, Mozambique. The workshop was special because it is rare to have all the faculty principals together in one place due to the dispersed nature of the institution. On this occasion they focused on developing high level policy statements that would shape the university’s ICT initiatives in the near future. After much lively debate around a presentation made by Neil Butcher a final list of principles were agreed on. These included improving Internet connectivity on all campuses, centralising various information systems (administration, learner management, resource repository) and developing capacity to offer blended learning opportunities within each faculty. Wisdom Machacha, the PHEA ETI UCM liaison, was tasked with developing an implementation plan that would actualise these principles.

University of Ibadan (UI) ETS Revision Workshop
In November 2013, Andrew Moore assisted by Brenda Mallinson, facilitated the ETS revision workshop at Ibadan, which was designed to support the PHE ETI team at UI in initiating engagement with the revision of their institutional ETS. The workshop, originally designed for senior UI management and the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Committee to take stock of progress in the deployment of ICT within the institution and to help identify what the next ICT priorities should be. However, because of a four month lecturers’ strike, full representation of senior management was not possible. Therefore, workshop participants actually comprised a team of PHEA ETI project coordinators and representatives from the UI ICT Unit who were tasked to provide feedback to the senior management team responsible for revising the 2009 institutional strategy policy.

A synthesized list of ICT priorities was identified by the highly engaged participants during the group activity, and included:

  • review existing IT and intellectual property policies;
  • setup data integration processes;
  • refocus ICT to support learning;
  • further investment in IT Infrastructure;
  • ensure access to digital technologies (both soft and hardware);
  • develop a capacity building programme for management, staff and students; and
  • expand awareness and use of OER.

Following the workshop, the Vice Chancellor, Prof Isaac Adewole, hosted a meeting with the Saide visiting team, the UI PHEA ETI Team, the UI ICT team and various other senior UI personnel. He expressed his satisfaction with the outcome of the PHEA ETI at UI, and reaffirmed his commitment to sustaining the UI work in the area and Educational Technology.

University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) ETS Revision Workshop
In December 2013, Brenda Mallinson assisted by Andrew Moore, facilitated the ETS revision workshop in Dar es Salaam, which was designed to support the PHEA ETI team at UDSM in initiating engagement with the revision of their institutional ETS. The UDSM workshop participants comprised members of the Centre for Virtual Learning (CVL) as well as invited academic leaders from the Colleges of ICT and Education.  Since an institutional eLearning Policy had been developed within the PHEA ETI, this draft document formed the basis of the workshop. The workshop was opened by Dr Kissaka, Director of Centre for Virtual Learning (CVL), who highlighted the related documents that would feed into the revision. The chair, Mr Munaku initiated workshop activities by drawing attention to recent changes to the 2012 eLearning policy document, and groups were formed to advise on updating sections of the document.

The policy and procedure document’s format was determined by a convention commonly used within the UDSM policy environment which identifies a policy objective, a series of policy statements and a series of related high level strategies. In discussion it was identified that in reality the strategies were high level guidelines or principles. Consequently, it was decided that the real strategy document should be a separate document and possibly described as an implementation plan. Of particular interest was the wording on how the use of OERs would integrate or align with the intellectual property policy at the institution.

At the conclusion of a most productive day, it was agreed that the CVL will drive both the e-learning policy and strategy/planning documents forward to their conclusion and approval by the relevant UDSM committees. Despite the conclusion of the PHEA ETI project, both organisations, UDSM CVL and Saide agreed they would make every effort to keep in contact and look for opportunities to work together in the future.

Kenyatta University (KU) ETS Revision Workshop
The KU engagement with revising their institutional educational technology strategy will take place with top management and senior academics towards the end of February 2014. The following theme has been proposed: “Innovative Strategies to Institutionalize and re-Engineer e-Learning & Open, Distance Learning at Kenyatta University”.

A special issue of this newsletter will be published shortly in order to showcase elements of the PHEA ETI, with project reflections from the seven institutional leaders as well as members of the Saide support team.