Advancing e-learning in African Higher Education:

Deliberating a research agenda

Approach to creating a research agenda• Bottom-up – not top-down pre-prepared research questions,

specific methodology and pre-determined interview schedules, questionnaire items or checklists

• Model a genuine partnership – not use as an opportunity to conduct research on, but conduct research with colleagues in other African universities

• Deliberate and create a research agenda for each institution that reflects the authentic needs of the institution and relates to educational technology intervention projects

• Support the research process from within each institution, rather than conducting research on behalf of the institution

• Support inter-university research partnerships (with other PHEA ETI institutions in the first instance) wherever possible and suitable

• Surface common research interests across all institutions

Consequences of this deliberative approach• The “road less travelled” …

– uncertain– unpredictable – possibly time consuming

• Hopefully more …– authentic– meaningful– useful– developmental

• More challenging to …– develop overarching frameworks– identify all the stakeholders and data that might be useful

at the commencement of the projects

Not a complete blank slate …

• Drew on preparatory work undertaken by a “think-tank” prior to the commencement of the PHEA ETI (Czerniewicz and Jaffer 2007) that identified key:– Factors– Levels– Issues and debates– Interventions– Investigations

• Conceptualisation of most likely types of research and timing of research studies

Adapted from Conole & Oliver 2007:13

Organisational

Technological

Political

EconomicSocial

Pedagogical & Epistemological

Key factors

Course

Key levelsNational

Regional

Global

Disciplinary

Institutional

Course

Levels Key factors

Social, political and economic

Organisational Pedagogical & epistemological

Technical

Global

National

Institutional

Disciplinary

Course

Levels Key factors

Social, political and economic

Organisational Pedagogical & epistemological

Technical

Global

•Issues and debates•Interventions•Investigations

National

Institutional

Disciplinary

Course

Levels Key factors

Social, political and economic

Organisational Pedagogical & epistemological

Technical

Global

National

Institutional Probable key focus area for PHEA ETI

Disciplinary

Course

Type 1 Type 2 Type 3

BEFORE Preliminary investigation

Implementation project

plan

Action research

Implementation project

DURING informs implement evaluate

AFTER Implementation project

evaluate

Post -implementati

on project

In the process of surfacing the framework

• Key framing question seems to be:How and why do African universities shape, enable or constrain the uptake and implementation of educational technologies in response to their teaching and learning challenges?

• Key subsidiary questions seem to include:– What are the key teaching and learning challenges faced by African

universities?– What access to and use of educational technologies do students and staff

in African universities have?– Why and how do African universities adopt specific educational

technologies to address their particular teaching and learning challenges?– What are the key enablements of successful adoption of educational

technologies and how are they best leveraged?– What are the key constraints of adopting educational technologies and how

can they be addressed?

Purpose of a research framework

• To provide a shared language to underpin the PHEA E-learning proposals, initiatives and projects

• To locate current issues and debates in context• To identify the key areas and elements of learning activities,

practices and research sites in Africa, and to map key relationships between those elements

• To identify points of leverage for change using educational technology to address educational challenges

• To map the challenges against potential interventions and investigations

Challenges, intervention and investigation projects

Challenges to be surmounted

Potential intervention projects (Implementation)

Potential investigation projects (Research)

Institutional: Social, political & economic• Institutional issues and debates

– Changing student needs and social divides (rural/urban, gender, class, disability)

– Enabling policy environment– Economic constraints and sustainability

• Institutional interventions – Strategy for the inclusion of under-represented groups– Development of institutional e-learning policies– Inclusion of e-learning policies in relevant university

policies– Development of a long-term sustainability plan– Linkages between institutional policies, regulations and

quality assurance mechanisms

Institutional: Social, political & economic (cont.)• Institutional investigations

– How do the needs of the “information society” translate into graduate competencies and institutional direction?

– What does such concepts as “any time any where” and “just in time learning” mean for university activities?

– How does/can e-learning encourage access of under-represented groups to the University?

– How well does the e-learning policy direct and support activities of university management, academics and students?

– In what ways does e-learning support the increase of the number of students enrolling at the University?

– How effective are monitoring mechanisms regarding e-learning policy and practice?

– How does the institutional environment constrain and enable the take up of ICTs for teaching and learning?

Institutional: Organisational

• Institutional issues and debates– Institutional structures to support student needs – Institutional structures to enhance contribution of staff– Integration of ICTs in higher education institutions– Recognition for e-learning developments– Incentives for e-learning activities and innovation– Intellectual Property Rights and alternative licensing

• Institutional interventions – The development of institutional policies to enable staff

in the use of ICTs for teaching – The development of institutional structures to enable

staff in the use of ICTs for teaching – The development of institutional policies to support

students in the use of ICTs for learning (eg computer literacy, information literacy, graduate competencies)

– The development of institutional structures to support students in the use of ICTs for learning

Institutional: Organisational (cont.)

• Institutional investigations– How well does the University support staff to develop

and students to use (and contribute to) e-learning materials?

– What recognition systems are in place to acknowledge the development of e-learning materials? Are they adequate? Which interests do the serve and what are the implications of this?

– What is the role of IPR policy in the production and dissemination of institutional resources? What are the implications of current and potential policies?

– How well does the University support staff in obtaining appropriate copyright for e-learning materials?

– How effective are dissemination mechanisms for the dissemination of institutional resources?

Institutional: Pedagogical

• Institutional issues and debates– Relationship between e-learning policy and curriculum

development– Quality assurance mechanisms– Use of e-learning for assessment and evaluation– Linkages between infrastructure and strategy

• Institutional interventions – Ensure synergy between e-learning policy & curriculum

development– Create quality assurance strategy– Appropriate infrastructure to support strategy decisions

for teaching and learning (classroom facilities, data projectors, wireless access etc)

– Rewards for good teaching with technology

Institutional: Pedagogical (cont.)

• Institutional investigations– How well do e-learning policies relate to and support

curriculum development?– How exactly is quality of e-learning courses ensured?– How exactly do staff and students use e-learning to

support their teaching and learning activities?– What pedagogical value do existing ICT-mediated

practices bring into the current classroom activities?– What existing ICT-mediated social practices do students

bring to the classroom context, which can be leveraged for teaching and learning?

– Which ICT tools add value to pedagogical activities– What are the global trends of ICT-mediated pedagogical

practices? How can these inform and influence local situations?

Institutional: Technical

• Institutional issues and debates– Institutional ICT infrastructure & support– Institution-wide learning management system– Other software for teaching and learning– On-campus/off campus accessibility

• Institutional interventions– Improvement of ICT support for students and staff– Creation of institution-wide learning management

systems– Creation of institutional repository for sharing teaching

and learning resources beyond university – Wireless access

Institutional: Technical (cont.)

• Institutional investigations– How well do existing structures support the use of e-

learning?– What is the role of the LMS in terms of the different

disciplinary communities within the university?– What long term scenarios need to be planned for?– How effective is the fit between the infrastructure and

the strategic direction of the institution?– What are the enabling and constraining technological

and practical factors for e-learning use?

Outputs of research

1. The overall research report for the entire project – suitable for inter-institutional reporting.

2. At least one research paper from each institution. Hopefully contained in a hardcopy document with an introduction and conclusion. Hopefully presented at a conference such as eLearning by someone from each institution – developed individual

3. Research paper on access and use of Educational Technology in all universities – developed collaboratively.

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