eLearning Africa (2009) African Virtual University Launches Ten-Country Distance Learning Facility eLearning Africa News Portal, December 21
From the report:
The African Virtual University (AVU) in partnership with the African Development Bank (AfDB) is launching Open Distance and eLearning Centres (ODeL) in ten African countries over the next five months. The first launch took place at the University of Zambia in October with subsequent launches in Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Senegal, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe, the effort continuing until early 2010.
The expansion will enable more universities to introduce eLearning into their existing curricula and create a community of peers that will generate original research on eLearning methodologies. It will also help universities generate a long-term and sustainable revenue base.
There is also a good brief description of the AVU and its work in this report.
For an update on this report, see: More on the African Virtual University
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The African Virtual University has made positive steps in the last year to become a more inclusive and effective organization. I was at the launch of the Open and Distance e-Learning (ODeL) Centre at the Open University of Tanzania (OUT) on December 10, 2009. According to the opening speech given by Dr. Bakary Diallo, Rector of the African Virtual University, the main functions of the ODeL Centre at OUT are:
• “to be a training facility for staff in the use of ICT in the development, delivery, and management of open, distance and e-learning;
• to be a delivery point for the current and future ODeL programmes such as the Teacher Education Programme;
• to be the physical location where staff are able to conduct research and participate in collaborative work in ODeL;
• to guarantee long-term sustainability by enabling the university to generate revenue.”
The African Virtual University is striving to “unlock the potential of ICTs in order to increase access to quality higher education”. Dr. Diallo believes that ICTs have the potential to:
• “improve the quality of teaching and learning;
• improve university administration;
• increase access to higher education in Africa;
• increase access to educational resources through digital libraries and e-resources;
• improve research activities;
• foster collaboration and networking between universities, i.e., through communities of practice;
• foster further collaboration between the private sector and higher education;
• enhance sub-regional and regional integration;
• facilitate the mobility of teachers and graduates.”
I expect that the ODeL will work in a collaborative manner with the centres of specialization being established by the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Promising initiative Interesting – I will follow the developments.