Journal of Learning for Development - JL4D
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Assessing E-Learning Readiness at the Kenya Technical Teachers College
No full textThe purpose of this survey was to assess the level of e-learning readiness at the Kenya Technical Teachers College (KTTC). This was part of an institution-wide strategy to guide the adoption and implementation of e-learning at KTTC. The main objectives of the survey were, to: assess the level of e-learning readiness by establishing a baseline aggregate index; and, recommend activities to improve the readiness that facilitate effective deployment of e-learning technologies in teaching, learning and research. Various models used for measuring e-readiness within the ADDIE model of instructional design were reviewed. Engholms’ model for assessing e-learning readiness provided the conceptual foundation for the survey and informed its objectives and methodology. A survey was used to capture the respondents’ perception of the level of e-learning readiness along five dimensions adapted from Engholm using a five-point Likert scale. Samples were collected based on quantitative and qualitative methods using self-administered questionnaires and interviews
Promoting Developmental Research – a Challenge for African Universities
No full textThere are two well-known and often-quoted facts about Sub-Saharan Africa. One is that, in spite of significant progress made in recent years, Africa remains the least developed region in the world and is unlikely to achieve all the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. The other is that Africa fares very poorly in terms of research; it produces only about 1% of the world’s research publications, and the bulk of these emanate from just two countries – South Africa and Nigeria. There is a clear link between these two phenomena, and while there is general acknowledgement that the research output from Africa must be dramatically increased in order to overcome the development challenges, achieving that objective appears to be elusive. Promoting research that directly impacts on development remains a challenge for Africa
E-Learning and Development: Lessons from Multi-Disciplinary Capacity Strengthening
No full textThis paper documents the experience and lessons from implementing an e-learning program aimed at creating multidisciplinary research capacity. It presents a case study of bringing together a multidisciplinary group of professionals on-line to learn the skills needed to be a successful researcher in the context of HIV/AIDS and food security problems in Eastern and Southern Africa. Lessons from the experience for future development of similar courses indicate that some of the factors that can enhance the success of e-learning programs in developing countries are: assessing the needs of the participants, easy access to educational technology, addressing the differing learning styles of the participants, continuous interaction and commitment of course moderators, enabling access to open access learning materials and combining various pedagogical approaches. The paper concludes that enhancing the skills of professionals in developing countries through e-learning programs is imperative to meet the human capacity needs for greater economic development and service delivery
Teacher Education and the Challenge of Development: a global analysis Edited by Bob Moon
No full textUsing Community Radio in a Rural Women’s Post-literacy Programme in Nepal
No full textThe paper examines the literacy and post-literacy needs of rural women in Nepal, describes a pilot study in using community radio to supplement a classroom-based post-literacy programme for these women, analyses the findings of this intervention and considers the implications for similar programmes in other settings
Feasibility of Open Schooling in Disturbed Societies: The Case of Afghanistan
No full textMost countries have enshrined right to education in their constitution but in reality to fulfil this commitment countries do face a number of challenges. And this is true with the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, which unlike other countries has a long history of war, conflicts, insurgency and hence insecurity. Although there have been positive steps towards rehabilitation of the education system and signs of promises can be seen in its achievements, access to quality education remains inequitable particularly across the provinces as a result of remoteness and geographical isolation, harsh climate, insecurity which impedes growth and sustainability of access points, high gender gap in all sectors of education particularly from lower secondary stage to higher stages of education, poor infrastructure prevalent in most schools, untrained teachers and low number of female teachers affecting participation, retention and continuity of studies.This paper highlights the current school educational status in Afghanistan to reveal the daunting challenges still existing to confront for the country to achieve its constitutional goals. It will also points out how Open schooling system can take charge of the challenges in Afghanistan to provide a channel of educational opportunities to those who cannot and do not go to school particularly the girls and women. (Note:This article was orginally presented in: The International Conference on Education for All: Role of Open Schooling, 13th -15th March 2013, New Delhi
Technology leadership and ICT use: Strategies for Capacity Building for ICT integration.
No full textTechnology leadership is a fairly new concept in school leadership focus. It has become a concern for study in recent times, in tandem with the pedagogical change of integrating ICT in teaching and learning especially in the developed nations. However, few such studies have been done in Africa. A number of studies in the developed countries have advanced descriptive approaches on how Educators should go about the using of ICT in education. Teachers, therefore, need to have prerequisite skills to integrate ICT in teaching and learning and school leaders have a role in enabling the effective use of ICTs. This study aimed at investigating how school leaders help build capacities of teachers to be able to effectively integrate ICT in their teaching and learning, at school level, in a public secondary school in Kenya. Using a qualitative case study approach, five school leaders involved in the capacity building, were purposively sampled for interviews, four teachers were engaged in a Focus Group Discussion and two teachers were observed engaged in classroom practice. Further data was obtained by analysing official school documents. The data analysed indicate the school leaders facilitated increased access to ICT facilities to the teachers and supported them, alongside training, to enable them explore various ways of integrating ICT in teaching and learning
Exploring the Potential of Online Courses to Develop Capacity for Sustainable Development
No full textA small team of independent entrepreneurs has developed two Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), in French, on sustainable development that attracted, respectively, 250+ and 150+ participants. This article describes the original intentions and formats of the MOOCs as well as their actual performance. With little publicity, the courses revealed strong buy-in by the participants and resulted in both a high percentage of completion and degree of satisfaction. In conclusion, the author estimates that MOOCs have the potential to provide the impetus needed in initial and vocational training to respond to the challenges of capacity development, highlighted in the Post-2015 Development Agenda and in reflections on Africa like the “Madavo Report” (2005) on capacity buidling in Africa
Continuity Education in Emergency and Conflict Situations: The Case For Using Open, Distance and Flexible Learning
No full textEmergency and conflict in countries such as Syria, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan have made us more aware of the long-term serial disruption and psychosocial damage faced by people caught up in emergency and conflict areas. Open, distance and flexible learning (ODFL) has sometimes been employed in these regions to maintain a degree of continuity in education. For the most part, however, this role has been ad hoc, short-term and often bearing limited relation to the psychosocial and educational needs of the displaced or traumatised populations it serves. But could ODFL play a more planned, significant and relevant role in emergency and conflict regions and if so, how? This paper will address this core question. We identify particular aspects of ODFL programmes, which are especially useful in reaching and extending basic and secondary education to hard-to-reach children and those in emergency and conflict contexts. Through a specific case study of the recent conflict in Sri Lanka, we show how ODFL is currently being used for these groups and to what effect. We argue that by building on proven achievements and integrating ODFL more systematically into the existing national planning for conflict and emergency zones, it could play a significant and cost-effective role in these regions and also, more widely, in facilitating links between the non-formal and formal sectors and improving the quality of provision
Harnessing OER to Develop Teachers: The Guyana Experience
No full textoai:ojs.ejl4d.org:article/2The Ministry of Education in Guyana has prioritised increasing the number of qualified teachers by providing opportunities to both pre- and in-service teachers to gain relevant qualifications. This paper describes the process used to redesign the teacher training curriculum in Guyana to achieve the goals of a newly-developed ICT Professional Development Strategy. The UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers (CFT) was central to the redesign process, and was used to review and reorganize the national teacher education curriculum aimed at pre-service teachers. The framework also influenced plans to provide professional development for in-service teachers, and influenced the selection of Open Education Resources (OER) used to develop a new learning environment and the accompanying learning materials for the teaching of ICT in Education. One of the significant lessons learned during this process is that people rather than technology are crucial to transformation. It is essential to have leadership support at the highest levels but also committed champions at all other levels. The process called for the inclusion of local stakeholders who understood and knew how to respond to contextual constraints. Moreover, the process benefited from the use of existing frameworks and the use of cost effective OER to develop the course materials