The Government of India and the African Union launched the Pan-African e-Network Project in 2009 to enable Indian universities to share their expertise with their African counterparts. One hundred and fifty students at the University of Dar es Salaam are enrolled in these tele-education programmes, and the reviews have been encouraging. Ludger Kasumuni reports
The University of Namibia (UNAM) has launched a new wireless network giving students with compliant laptops unlimited Internet access around campus. Initially available to students at the main Windhoek campus from February 20th, 2012, plans are in place to extend the wireless capability to all ten of the university’s campuses nationwide. Speaking to eLearning Africa, [...]
The eLearning Africa Debate 2011 – it certainly was not the typical end to a conference! The debate reflected the nature of the eLearning Africa community: a passionate, informed discussion from a community that is diverse in perspective but united in its commitment to use technology to improve education. This year, the eLA Debate wrestled [...]
One of the hot topics at eLearning Africa this year is certain to be the educational implications of the rise of social media. There will undoubtedly be a great deal of ideas, innovation and speculation regarding the future of the sector. If you want to combine this energy with some substantive analysis regarding the social [...]
Anyone involved in eLearning will be familiar with the challenge: A new technology is introduced into a school accompanied by a lot of energy and enthusiasm, but over time it doesn’t quite get utilised in the way the proponents anticipated. Understanding the reasons behind this is central to enhancing our effectiveness. In this second article [...]
A great way to find out what does and does not work in eLearning is to listen to those that have been conducting longitudinal research and developing empirical evidence over many years. Researchers at the University of Cape Town, Associate Professor Laura Czerniewicz, director of the Centre for Educational Technology and Cheryl Brown, an award-winning [...]
Open Educational Resources (OER) are a very popular issue at eLearning Africa. However, do they really play such a positive role in higher education and at other educational institutions across Africa? The eLearning Africa 2011 Debate, traditionally a very lively, parliamentary-style discussion, will address the following motion: “This house believes that the OER movement is [...]
The African Virtual University (AVU) launched the interactive Open Education Resources portal OER@AVU in January this year. The portal can be accessed at http://oer.avu.org and contains quality resources developed together with twelve universities in ten African countries. The resources are released under the Creative Commons open licence. Through the portal, AVU will enable academics throughout the [...]
Higher education is one of the fastest growing sub-sectors of education in Tanzania. Back in 1990 there were only 3,146 students attending the country’s two universities. Today there are 15,000 students enrolled at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) alone. New universities have opened. Existing universities have increased their intake of students and UDSM, [...]
Distance Learning can provide excellent opportunities to educate students in conflict zones. Regardless of ethnic, religious or political backgrounds, gender issues or geographical remoteness –all learners can be given access to high quality education. In sub-Saharan Africa, institutions, such as the African Virtual University, have worked beyond linguistic and cultural boundaries, indirectly promoting peace-building and [...]