COLLABORATIVE DISTANCE EDUCATION IN THE …unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002197/219711e.pdf · COLLABORATIVE DISTANCE EDUCATION IN THE CARIBBEAN Prepared by Dr Nancy George on behalf

COLLABORATIVE DISTANCE EDUCATION

IN THE CARIBBEAN

An Evaluation of the Caribbean Universities Project for Integrated

Distance Education (CUPIDE)

COLLABORATIVE DISTANCE EDUCATION

IN THE CARIBBEAN

Prepared by Dr Nancy George

on behalf of the Commonwealth of Learning

An Evaluation of the Caribbean Universities Project for Integrated

Distance Education (CUPIDE)

Published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural OrganizationKingston Cluster Office for the CaribbeanThe Towers25 Dominica DriveKingston 5Jamaica, W. I.

© UNESCO 2012

All rights reserved.

The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publicationdo not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerningthe legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning thedelimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

The author is responsible for the choice and the presentation of the facts contained in thisbook and for the opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily those of UNESCOand do not commit the Organization.

Cover and book design by Robert Harris ([email protected])Set in Georgia 11/16 x 39

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KNG/2012/PI/H/1

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mailto:[email protected]

List of Figures viAcknowledgements viiiAcronyms viiiExecutive Summary ix

1.0 Introduction 11.1 Project executing agency and co-beneficiaries 11.2 Purpose of the independent evaluation 11.3 Methodology 2

1.3.1 Desk research 21.3.2 Field visits 31.3.3 Electronic data gathering and correspondence 31.3.4 Evaluation design 31.3.5 Ensuring the accuracy of the evaluation findings 4

2.0 Project Summary 42.1 Project partners and duration 42.2 Project structure 5

2.2.1 CUPIDE management 52.2.2 The Project Advisory Committee (PAC) 5

2.3 Project budget 92.4 Implementation schedule for the project 92.5 Objectives of CUPIDE 10

2.5.1 The CUPIDE development objective 102.5.2 Specific Objectives of CUPIDE 11

3.0 Implementation of CUPIDE Activities 123.1 Initial achievements in CUPIDE January 2003–October 2004 123.2 CUPIDE Launch, February 4, 2003 123.3 Launch of the CUPIDE e-mail address and website 133.4 Establishment of CARADOL 133.5 Technical Consultancy by Mr Ken Sylvester 153.6 Human resource and distance education consultancy by Mr Ron Nicholas 18

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CONTENTS

4.0 CUPIDE Activities November 2004–March 2005 25 4.1 The revised CUPIDE project proposal 25

5.0 CUPIDE Activities April 2005 – December 2007 275.1 Development and offering of the first e-learning course through CUPIDE 275.2 Identification and purchase of equipment for the CUPIDE universities 295.3 Development of strategic plans for distance education in co-beneficiary

universities 305.4 Identification of the LMS and training and its use 31

5.4.1 Quality of the Moodle training consultancies 325.5 CUPIDE-related programme/course development in co-beneficiary

universities 325.6 Development of the CUPIDE Web portal 34

6.0 Ownership and Relevance of CUPIDE and its Outcomes 35

7.0 Efficiency of CUPIDE’s implementation 367.1 Lack of clarity in the relationship between CUPIDE and CKLN 367.2 Efficiency in meeting the CUPIDE objectives 37

7.2.1 Provision of affordable bandwidth 377.2.2 Potential assistance to CUPIDE co-beneficiary universities

through C@RIBNET 397.2.3 The efficiency of staffing in CUPIDE 407.2.4 Efficiency of funds disbursement 41

8.0 Quality of Project Inputs 478.1 Procurement of consulting services in CUPIDE 47

8.1.1 The CUPIDE consultant procurement process 478.1.2 The consultancies executed through CUPIDE 48

8.2 Procurement of equipment for the CUPIDE universities 49

9.0 Review of the CUPIDE Inception Report: The Evolution of the Original Project Results 519.1 Detailed implementation plan for purchase and installation of hardware

and software 529.2 Report on staffing requirements for each institution 529.3 Reproduction and binding capacity at the universities 529.4 Training manuals 539.5 Report on recurrent budgetary support required for technical,

administrative, and academic aspects of the system 539.6 Projection report of prospects for the future 53

CONTENTS

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10.0 CUPIDE Achievements 5410.1 CUPIDE’s contribution to UniQ’s achievements in distance education 5410.2 CUPIDE’s contributions to AdeKUS’s development of electronically-assisted

distance education 5510.3 CUPIDE’s contribution to electronically-assisted distance education at UG 5610.4 CUPIDE’s contributions to UTech’s strengthening and development of

electronically-assisted distance education 5710.5 CUPIDE’s contributions to UWI’s development of electronically-assisted

distance education 5710.6 Development of university collaborationthrough a regional distance

education association 58

11.0 Summary and Recommendations 5811.1 Accomplishments 5811.2 Recommendations for future initiatives in support of distance education

in the CUPIDE universities 5911.2.1 Continued provision of affordable bandwidth 5911.2.2 Continued development of human resources in the co-beneficiary

universities to develop and manage distance and blended offerings 6011.2.3 Provision of technical assistance to co-beneficiary universities 6011.2.4 Development of collaborative teacher training programmes offered

by distance and/or blended learning in the CUPIDE universities 6011.2.5 Encouragement of private sector partnerships to develop distance

and blended courses in CUPIDE universities 6111.2.6 Building of national distance education associations to support

and strengthen CARADOL 61

12.0 Final Thoughts 61

Appendicies

Appendix I Lessons learned in CUPIDE implementation 63Appendix II List of documents consulted 69Appendix III CUPIDE evaluation design 72Appendix IV Consultants’ Interview schedule 74Appendix V Resources acquired template 75Appendix VI Equipment acquired through CUPIDE 76

Notes 81

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CONTENTS

Figure 1 CUPIDE Organisational Structure 7

Figure 2 Progression of CUPIDE universities’ level of expenditure 43

Figure 3 Breakdown of support provided to university partners 44

Figure 4 UNESCO/JFIT Financial Contribution 44

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LIST OF FIGURES

This report was commissioned by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), Vancouver, Canadaand financed by the UNESCO Kingston Cluster Office for the Caribbean. It was prepared byDr Nancy George under the guidance of Professor Asha Kanwar, Vice President of COL and

Mr Paolo Fontani, Education Programme Specialist in the UNESCO Kingston Cluster Office forthe Caribbean. The report was finalized for publication by the UNESCO Kingston Cluster Officefor the Caribbean under the supervision of Mr Robert Parua, Education Programme Specialist,Ms Jenelle Babb, National Programme Officer for HIV and AIDS, and the overall authority of Dr Kwame Boafo, Director and Representative.

We gratefully acknowledge the contributions of the following institutions and persons who supported the report’s preparation and publication: representatives of The University of the WestIndies; The University of Technology, Jamaica; Quisqueya University, Haiti; Anton de Kom University, Suriname; University of Guyana; Ministry of Education, Guyana; Ministry of Educa-tion, Suriname; the Caribbean Knowledge Learning Network (CKLN); the CARICOM Secretariat;Mrs Gillian Bernard and Dr Dotlyn Minott, consultants to the Education Programme in theUNESCO Kingston Cluster Office for the Caribbean, and Ms Patricia Toigo, Publications Officer,Knowledge Management Services, Education Sector, UNESCO HQs in Paris.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

AdeKUS Anton de Kom University of SurinameCANQATE Caribbean Area Network for Quality Assurance in Tertiary EducationCARADOL Caribbean Regional Association for Distance and Open LearningCARICOM Caribbean CommunityCEO Chief Executive OfficerCEODL Continuing Education Open and Distance Learning (UTech – see OCEODL below))CKLN Caribbean Knowledge and Learning NetworkCOL Commonwealth of LearningCUPIDE Caribbean Universities Project for Integrated Distance EducationDE Distance EducationEFA Education for All FOSS Free and Open Source SystemHOG Heads of GovernmentIADB Inter-American Development BankIDCE Institute for Distance and Continuing Education (Guyana)IFI International Funding InstitutionJFIT Japanese Funds-in-Trust for Capacity-Building of Human Resources LMS Learning Management SystemMDGs Millennium Development GoalsMITS Mona Information Technology ServiceOAS Organization of American StatesOCDE Office of Curriculum Development and Evaluation (UTech)OCEODL Office of Continuing Education Open and Distance Learning (UTech)PAC Project Advisory CommitteeSIDS Small Island Developing StatesTLI Tertiary Learning InstitutionTOR Terms of ReferenceUG University of GuyanaUNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural OrganizationUniQ Université QuisqueyaUTech University of Technology, JamaicaUWI University of the West IndiesUWIDEC University of the West Indies Distance Education Centre

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ACRONYMS

This document presents the results of a summative evaluation of the Human Resource Devel-opment in Electronically Enhanced Teaching, Administration and Material Distribution Project, which was funded through the Japanese Funds-in-Trust for Capacity-building of

Human Resources (JFIT) and overseen by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and CulturalOrganisation (UNESCO). The project was more popularly known as the Caribbean UniversitiesProject for Integrated Distance Education (CUPIDE).

The development objective of the project was:

. . . to develop the human resources within the region through enabling each of the five participating universities to develop and deliver quality distance education programmes using ICTs.1

Defining this ambitious development objective were the specific objectives of CUPIDE:

• To select appropriate enabling technologies and media;

• To acquire appropriate hardware and software for the telecommunications network, materialsdistribution and reproduction, teaching and administration;

• To identify programmes and develop them for delivery using ICTs;

• To identify and provide necessary technical assistance to foster the development of the requiredtechnical, administrative and educational systems to enable CUPIDE universities to offer distance education based on the use of ICTs;

• To identify appropriate personnel (academic, administrative, technical) in each institution tobe trained in the use of ICTs for teaching, administration, and materials delivery, thereby build-ing the human resource capacity in the provider institutions;

• To train the persons who have to use the technology including students;

• To establish with the support of CARICOM and other such bodies strategic linkages withproviders and manufacturers;

• To establish/strengthen links among universities;

• To gather baseline data (including existing studies) on matters such as technology in the region;use of ICTs by the universities in the region for distance education; other complementary DEinitiatives in the region, [and] student and staff learning styles;

• To develop projections of prospects for expansion to other institutions at different levels of theeducational system.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Five universities located across the Caribbean participated in CUPIDE: the UWI (a regional uni-versity with campuses in Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago and non-campus territoriesin 14 other countries) was the executing agency, and the other four universities, AdeKUS (Suri-name), UG (Guyana), UniQ (Haiti) and UTech (Jamaica), were identified as co-beneficiaries.

The three-year project had a total budget of US$2,123,426, of which the Japanese Funds-in-Trust (JFIT) provided US$1,118,426 to UNESCO for administration on its behalf. US$989,758was allocated for project activities and the balance of US$128,668 was for overhead costs. Thecounterpart contribution was estimated to be US$1,005,000.

The project provided technical assistance in the form of consultancies executed by internation-ally-recognised experts, who conducted research to identify the needs of the CUPIDE universities,recommended the equipment, software and systems the universities needed to develop to enhanceand/or strengthen their distance offerings, assisted in strategic and operational planning, and con-ducted training to enable academic and technical staff and students to use and develop distanceeducation courses. For some of the co-beneficiary universities, CUPIDE marked their first ventureinto on-line and/or blended distance education; for others, CUPIDE facilitated the strengtheningand expansion of their capacity to offer courses through asynchronous distance education modal-ities. For three of the co-beneficiary universities, CUPIDE was a first effort in electronically-enhanced distance education. Their rapid progress in a short period of time was remarkable, andis attributable in part to their recognition of the value of ICT-based distance education in theirrespective contexts, the availability of highly committed training consultants to work with them,and their ability to collaborate with more experienced universities.

CUPIDE supported collaboration among the participating universities through its managementstructure, a multi-institution Project Advisory Committee speaking on behalf of all of the CUPIDEpartners, its creation of a web portal for sharing the courses designed by the respective universitiesfollowing their training in on-line course development, and its support for the development of aregional distance education organisation, CARADOL. For some of the co-beneficiary universities,the project marked their initial experience with inter-institutional collaboration in distance education.

The project had some initial difficulties in getting its activities underway. However, in the initial18 months, CUPIDE was able to award and complete two important consultancies on IT andhuman resources that were to inform the rest of the project, organize and publicize the projectlaunch, recruit the members of the Project Advisory Committee, and develop and launch a regionaldistance education association, CARADOL.

In August 2004, CUPIDE activities were suspended while the donor community considered howCUPIDE would relate to a larger multi-donor initiative, the Caribbean Knowledge and LearningNetwork (CKLN), which had a number of objectives similar to those of CUPIDE. However, afterreviewing the situation carefully, the donor re-activated CUPIDE, with substantially the originalobjectives, but also anticipating that CUPIDE could provide valuable information to CKLN, whichhas the mandate of serving all of the tertiary institutions in the region.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

x

The most serious challenge to the project’s original design and projected outcomes was the lossof its promised source of low-cost satellite bandwidth. From its inception, CUPIDE anticipatedthat E-Link Americas would provide affordable satellite bandwidth to the participating universities.However, when E-Link Americas collapsed in late 2005, CUPIDE was faced with the possibilitythat it would not be able to accomplish one of its primary objectives – to expand access to theirprogrammes through on-line and blended asynchronous course provision. It was not until mid-2007 that UWI was able to negotiate with a commercial satellite provider to obtain the bandwidthCUPIDE had lost in the collapse of E-Link Americas. UWI very generously agreed to provide band-width to the co-beneficiary universities at no cost for one year – from March 2008 to March 2009.This bandwidth provision has made the achievement of CUPIDE’s objectives possible.

From mid-2006 to the end of 2007, the project moved swiftly to accomplish its remaining objec-tives. Originally scheduled to complete its objectives by December 2006, CUPIDE had to seek aone-year extension of its completion date to finish the procurement process for the universities.In the final 18 months of the project, CUPIDE managed to achieve its development objective andalmost all of its specific objectives.

CUPIDE’s achievements include:

• development of virtual resources – a website, e-mail address and portal supporting the virtualcommunity of CUPIDE universities;

• consultancy reports providing useful research and evidence-based recommendations on theselection of appropriate ICT equipment, the planning and management of distance educationin face-to-face university settings, systems necessary to support distance learning and teachingin a variety of media, and staff training in course writing to support electronically-enhancedasynchronous distance education in the CUPIDE universities;

• establishment of a regional distance education association;

• drafting of strategic plans for ICT and DE in all of the CUPIDE universities;

• provision of suitable hardware and a common open source software programme to enableCUPIDE universities to offer by distance on-line and electronically-enhanced blended courses;

• development and scheduled offering of a total of 18 courses through on-line or blended modal-ities in the co-beneficiary universities;

• training of more than 130 academic staff, 38 technical staff and 20 student leaders across theparticipating universities in the use of and support for the LMS;

• development of a web portal through which all of the CUPIDE universities can share the on-line and blended courses they develop;

• development of an on-line e-learning course through collaboration between two CUPIDE universities, which is available for use by all CUPIDE universities;

• provision of V-SAT equipment and one year’s free bandwidth to three of the four co-beneficiaryuniversities and all UWI campuses;

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

• launch of UWI’s virtual campus (2008/09), at least partly because of the experience of servingas the executing agency for CUPIDE;

• establishment of an urgently-needed on-line in-service teacher education programme offeredin sites away from the main campus of a co-beneficiary university with a year’s free bandwidthprovided by a commercial supplier to effect on-line and blended course offerings;

• recognition of a co-beneficiary university as the national leader in distance education, andappointment of the Rector of that institution as the Chair of a National Steering Committee fordistance education;

• establishment of a total of five computer laboratories dedicated to distance education in theco-beneficiary universities;

• establishment or strengthening of distance learning centres in four of the CUPIDE universi-ties.

• provision of equipment to all universities to reproduce print-based support materials for on-line and blended courses, and provision of binding equipment for two of the CUPIDE universities.

CUPIDE has successfully developed important infrastructural and human resources in the par-ticipating universities, contributing to their ability to offer electronically-enhanced DE courses,and has been able to generate valuable information from which CKLN could potentially benefit asit addresses its mandate in tertiary institutions across the region.2

The web portal developed under CUPIDE will continue to provide a platform on which CUPIDEuniversities can post the courseware they develop, whether or not CKLN will be able to adapt itfor its use.3 The CUPIDE portal will also continue to provide communication links between andamong the CUPIDE universities.

The major threat to the sustainability of CUPIDE’s accomplishments is the continued availabilityof affordable bandwidth to support the on-line and/or blended courses and course materialsoffered in the co-beneficiary universities. To sustain and/or build upon the accomplishments ofCUPIDE, the co-beneficiary universities will require affordable bandwidth for a longer period oftime than the one year promised by UWI. If a donor could be identified to provide that bandwidthfor at least two more years, the co-beneficiary universities would be able to develop and test theiron-line courses, and build the quality of those courses so that they will gradually be able to generatethe funds necessary to support the cost of the bandwidth on which their distance programmes rely.

An important area in which electronically-enhanced asynchronous distance education can makean important contribution is in-service teacher education and ongoing professional development.In almost all of the Caribbean countries – and certainly in the countries of the CUPIDE universities– there is an urgent need for high quality, readily accessible in-service distance education to trainthe under-qualified and unqualified teaching cohort in each of the countries. Responding to thedemand for better trained teachers and improved teaching and learning opportunities for studentswould meet a number of development goals and the EFA agenda.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

xii

The contributions to the success of CUPIDE made by the CARICOM representative and theUNESCO Project Manager are important to acknowledge. In the final 18 months of the project(including the extension to the end of December 2007), the UNESCO Project Manager in theKingston Office frequently proposed solutions to implementation challenges as they arose andfacilitated the procurement and expenditure systems that enabled the project to achieve its goal.Having CARICOM chair the project’s management group provided important regional legitimacyto CUPIDE’s activities and accomplishments.

The PAC chairperson also chaired the Regional Consultation on Institutional Collaboration inDistance Education held in St. Lucia at the end of November 2007.4 Through this three-day con-sultation, CUPIDE concluded its project responsibilities and shared its achievements with othertertiary institutions in the region.5

The consultation was designed to encourage collaboration in distance education amongCaribbean tertiary institutions and potentially increase the number interested in using electroni-cally-enhanced learning to improve learner access to their programmes. At the consultation, theCUPIDE participants, others with experience in models of institutional collaboration at the tertiarylevel,6 and quality assurance in distance education shared their expertise and contributed to discussions.

Perhaps the most extraordinary feature of CUPIDE was how quickly the co-beneficiary univer-sities were able to assimilate the contributions of CUPIDE into their respective systems. The acknowledgement of the importance of CUPIDE by senior administration in most of the co-beneficiary universities enabled them to develop strategies for continuing to build on theCUPIDE achievements.

In the final analysis, the sustainability of CUPIDE’s achievements relies on continuing itsachievements in the participating universities and transferring its learning to other tertiary insti-tutions in the region through institutions like CKLN7 and projects with objectives similar to thoseof CUPIDE.8

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Perhaps the most extraordinary feature of CUPIDE was how quicklythe co-beneficiary universities were able to assimilate the contribu-tions of CUPIDE into their respective systems. The acknowledgementof the importance of CUPIDE by senior administration in most of theco-beneficiary universities enabled them to develop strategies forcontinuing to build on the CUPIDE achievements.

1.0 INTRODUCTION

The Human Resource Development in Electronically Enhanced Teaching, Administration andMaterial Distribution Project, which stakeholders and participants refer to as The Caribbean Uni-versities Project for Integrated Distance Education (CUPIDE),9 is the subject of this evaluationreport. For ease of reference, the evaluation report refers to the project as CUPIDE.

This evaluation is included as an immediate objective under CUPIDE and fulfils the projectrequirement to conduct an evaluation of the project. The Commonwealth of Learning (COL)through its partnership agreement with UNESCO has provided the Consultant to conduct the evaluation with funds assigned for the evaluation activity in the project.

1.1 Project executing agency and co-beneficiaries

The project identifies The University of the West Indies (UWI) through its Distance EducationCentres (UWIDEC) in Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago as the implementing or exe-cuting agency for CUPIDE, and four other universities – Université Quisqueya (UniQ) in Haiti,The University of Guyana (UG), The University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech), and Anton deKom University of Suriname (AdeKUS) as the co-beneficiaries of the project.

1.2 Purpose of the independent evaluation

As identified by UNESCO in the Consultant’s Terms of Reference (TOR), the purpose of the inde-pendent evaluation was:

1

EVALUATION OF THE HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT IN ELECTRONICALLY

ENHANCED TEACHING, ADMINISTRATION AND MATERIAL DISTRIBUTION PROJECT

The Caribbean Universities Project for Integrated Distance Education (CUPIDE)

. . . to enable the participating institutions, UNESCO and the donor to:

1. Assess the efficiency of implementation: quantity, quality, cost and timeliness of UNESCO and coun-terpart inputs and activities;

2. Assess the outputs produced and outcomes achieved as compared to those planned, and to verifysustainability and prospects for development impact;

3. Provide an analytical basis and recommendations for a possible continuation of the project, andsynergies with other regional partners/programmes, with particular regard to the possible integra-tion of the project’s sustainable results into the future activities of the Caribbean Knowledge andLearning Network (CKLN);

4. Draw lessons of wider application for the possible replication of the pilot experience in other countries.10

1.3 Methodology

The TOR for the evaluation stipulate that the evaluation is “to be conducted in compliance withUNESCO evaluation policy as an Independent Evaluation.”11

The evaluation has been carried out at the end of the project cycle. Its intent is:

. . . to determine as systematically and objectively as possible the relevance, efficiency, achievements(outputs, outcomes and impact) and sustainability of the programme . . . [by assessing] the achieve-ments of the project against its key objectives as set out in the project document including re-exami-nation of the relevance of the objectives and of the design . . . [identifying] factors that have facilitatedor impeded the achievement of the objectives.12

1.3.1 Desk research

The Consultant obtained documentation from the project’s Operations Manager based in Jamaica,the Financial Manager based in Barbados, the UNESCO Office in Kingston, and each of the respec-tive participating universities.13 Her desk research included a review of the original project proposal, the revised project proposal, the quarterly reports to UNESCO, the Minutes of each ofthe Project Advisory Committee (PAC) meetings14 (both face-to-face and teleconferences), andpresentations made concerning CUPIDE in a variety of fora. She also reviewed the notes from theCARICOM Consultation on Collaboration in Distance Education, held in St. Lucia November27–29, 2007. She reviewed as much of the existing documentation of the project as she couldobtain, and then designed and circulated an interview form to each of the respective PAC repre-sentatives, and used this form as the basis of discussions and focus groups during her visits to eachof the universities. Specific individual interview forms, which were administered face-to-face during visits to the three UWI campuses in Mona, Jamaica, Cave Hill, Barbados and St. Augustine,Trinidad and Tobago, were designed for the respective UWI/UWIDEC Managers.

COLLABORATIVE DISTANCE EDUCATION IN THE CARIBBEAN

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1.3.2 Field visits

Following the desk research, the Consultant visited each of the participating universities15 andthe CARICOM Secretariat to conduct face-to-face interviews with key stakeholders, current and previous members of the PAC, members of the senior university administration, the UWImanagement team members, and staff members in each university that had benefited from or hadparticipated in the CUPIDE project.16 While the survey instruments were used to guide discussions,they were applied in an open-ended non-linear manner to enable the discussions to flow in a waythat best facilitated the Consultant’s understanding of the benefits of the operation of CUPIDE ineach university and national context.

The Consultant contacted the current PAC members 0f the five universities to arrange face-to-face interviews with relevant stakeholders in their respective institutions. The institutional PACmembers were most helpful in arranging meetings with stakeholders and relevant members of the senior administration in their universities. She also conducted interviews with the CARICOMPAC member who chaired the PAC and the current UNESCO staff members responsible for theproject.

UNESCO Kingston was most helpful in providing information, clarifying the Consultant’s under-standing of the project, and assisting her to contact persons whom she had difficulty in reaching.

1.3.3 Electronic data gathering and correspondence

To complement the face-to-face interviews in UWI and each co-beneficiary university, the Con-sultant circulated two templates – one to document the resources17 acquired and one to identifythe categories and numbers of staff trained under CUPIDE. The Consultant asked the respectivePAC university members to complete and e-mail these templates back to her. These completedtemplates were intended to verify the staff training accomplished under the project and theresources and equipment received by each university.

Following the field visits, as additional issues not covered in the initial interviews arose, theConsultant continued her data gathering via e-mail correspondence with the PAC members andother relevant beneficiaries of the project.

1.3.4 Evaluation design

This evaluation has been designed as summative, since project activities were scheduled to be con-cluded in December 2007 and the evaluation was contracted almost at the close of project activities.

While a formative evaluation might have garnered more timely information and assisted in theproject implementation during CUPIDE’s operation, the formative evaluation role was carried outby the PAC. A review of the Minutes of the PAC meetings revealed that the PAC took its responsi-bilities very seriously.

As much as possible, the evaluation has used participatory strategies. As well as open-ended

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AN EVALUATION OF THE CARIBBEAN UNIVERSITIES PROJECT FOR INTEGRATED DISTANCE EDUCATION

face-to-face interviews, the Consultant conducted focus groups with stakeholders who receivedtraining through the project and are – or have been involved in developing courses to be offeredby distance, and she invited the interviewees to submit follow-up comments by e-mail after hervisits to the respective universities.

The specific project-related issues which the CUPIDE Evaluator has been instructed to addressare:• Ownership and relevance in the project

• Efficiency of implementation

• Effectiveness of implementation

• Funds mobilisation

• Project co-ordination and management

• Project identification and formulation

Each of these issues is addressed in relation to the project as a whole and its operation in eachof the co-beneficiary institutions.

1.3.5 Ensuring the accuracy of the evaluation findings

The draft evaluation report was circulated to the PAC members through UNESCO Kingston fortheir comment, their confirmation of the accuracy of the report, and for the provision of any rele-vant information not included in the draft report that would affect the report’s conclusions andrecommendations. The Consultant corrected errors of fact, adjusted the presentation of the find-ings, and made the necessary additions to the final draft of the report.

2.0 PROJECT SUMMARY

2.1 Project partners and duration

The three-year project was originally conceived in 200018 between the Japanese Government’sJapanese Funds-in-Trust for Capacity-building of Human Resources, with funds managed byUNESCO’s Kingston office, and the University of the West Indies (UWI) through its Distance Edu-cation Centre (UWIDEC) as the implementing agency. In addition to the UWI, there were fourother co-beneficiary universities: Anton de Kom University of Suriname (AdeKUS), UniversitéQuisqueya in Haiti (UniQ), The University of Guyana (UG) and The University of Technology,Jamaica (UTech). The project began operations in January 2003 with the submission of an Incep-tion Report that contained a summary of the project, described the relationship among the


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co-beneficiary universities and the executing agency UWI, the project management and financialarrangements for the project, and emphasised the fact that the project continued to be of relevanceto the participating institutions.

In April 2005, after a seven-month hiatus that began in mid-2004, the project was re-formulatedand re-started employing the same development objective, the same specific (immediate) objec-tives and the same budget. In late November 2006, when it became obvious that the project activ-ities would not be completed by the end of the year, the Japanese government agreed to extendCUPIDE for an additional year to December 31, 2007.19

2.2 Project structure

2.2.1 CUPIDE management

The CUPIDE’s routine operations were managed by the Project Operations Manager20 located atUWIDEC on the Mona Campus of UWI in Jamaica. The Director of the Distance Education Cen-tres, located at UWI Cave Hill in Barbados, was designated as the Project Manager from the timeof his recruitment. The Financial Officer was also located at UWIDEC in Barbados, and the Tech-nical Officer was located at UWIDEC’s St. Augustine Campus in Trinidad and Tobago. Originally,the technical advice to the project was provided by the UWI Director of Information Technologylocated in Jamaica. While this may appear to be an unwieldy structure because of the geographicalseparation among the project’s management team, in actuality, the UWI management system operates successfully across its three campus territories, relying on regular e-mail and audio conferencing.

However, it is also important to note that only one member of the PAC was assigned releasetime to serve the project and the PAC: the current CUPIDE Operations Manager. Another memberof the UWI team observed, “If it hadn’t been for . . . [the Operations Manager], it’s doubtful thatwe could have accomplished the things we have. She made the time to do what was needed, andshe was always responsive. . .”21 Another interviewee, also a PAC university representative, com-mented on the quick responses of the Operations Manager: The project owes a lot to . . . [her]. She always answered me quickly when I had questions or problems. . . I could always rely on . . .[her]. She has really assisted me in the project.”22 Another stakeholder observed that the Opera-tions Manager was “. . . the oral history of the project.”23 The Consultant heard positive commentsabout the Operations Manager’s contribution to the project from most of the stakeholders sheinterviewed.

2.2.2 The Project Advisory Committee (PAC)

The PAC was a collective vehicle through which UWI, the co-beneficiary universities, and donorrepresentatives collaborated in the management of the project.

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In the CUPIDE Inception Report the identified TOR for the PAC were to:

. . . provide the forum for the monitoring of the project in terms of meeting the immediate objectivesand the overall development objective.

. . . consider and determine direction regarding the development and delivery of courses/programmesdeveloped under the project, ensuring the smooth integration of the courses/programmes inaccordance with each university’s policies/practices/procedures . . .

. . . be responsible for recommending to the respective university’s Committees, Faculties or Boards,the academic practices and procedures that may become necessary throughout the life of the project.

. . . approve the composition of selection committees for the determination of the award of contracts[and]

. . . promote the project in the respective institutions and countries and seek to ensuresustainability.24

The resubmitted project proposal stated that the PAC was established “. . . to monitor the projectand enable the smooth integration within each university of programmes developed under theproject.”25

In summary, the PAC was the collective management and monitoring vehicle for the CUPIDEthat was shared by all stakeholders.

Because of CUPIDE’s regional focus, a representative of the CARICOM Secretariat chaired thePAC. It included as its members the UWI management team and one representative of each of theco-beneficiary universities. Once the new Director of UWIDEC was recruited to UWI, he becamethe Project Manager and UWI member of the PAC. The original Project Manager, who managedthe day-to-day operations of the project, became the Project Operations Manager.

[When I joined UWI]. . . I became the Project Manager, but I wanted . . . [the previous Project Man-ager] to continue to look after the day-to-day operations . . . What I could offer was leverage with thesenior management . . .26

Other UWI managers attended the PAC as they were needed to report on aspects of the project’simplementation. UNESCO was an ex-officio member of the PAC.27

At each of the PAC meetings, the UWI Project Manager/Project Operations Manager presenteda report on the project activities in the period since the last meeting, and proposed the activityplan for the succeeding months. All university representatives reported on the CUPIDE activitiesand plans at their institution, and outlined the proposed activities for the next time period. ThePAC also addressed any implementation challenges presented to it, and approved consultant selec-tion for CUPIDE assignments.

Given its responsibility to “. . . promote the project in the respective institutions and countriesand seek to ensure sustainability,” PAC members each organised a Public Lecture whose subjectrelated to CUPIDE’s objectives and the role of distance education in their respective countries.


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These public lectures gave visibility to the project, UNESCO and the Japanese government asdonors to CUPIDE activities.

The title “Project Advisory Committee” accorded to this committee that met quarterly or semi-annually28 to review the project’s activities may, in practice, have been a misnomer, since thisgroup made or approved major operational decisions in CUPIDE. A review of the PAC Minutesreveals that the UWI management team brought its recommendations to the PAC either prior toimplementation for the concurrence of the PAC, or after implementation for the PAC’s validation.Perhaps it should have been called the Project Steering Committee. Its role was certainly morethan “advisory.”

The greatest challenge to the effective operation of the PAC appears to have been its frequently-changing membership. In December, 2007 no representative from the co-beneficiary universitieshad served on the PAC from its inception. At least three of the universities had changed their PACRepresentative as many as three times over the life of CUPIDE.29 The UNESCO representativeattending PAC meetings changed four times. The UWI Project Director and Financial Officer serv-ing the project in December 2007 were not original members of the PAC. In fact, the only “foun-dation” members remaining on the PAC in December 2007 were the CARICOM Representative,who chaired the PAC, the Technical Officer, and the UWI Operations Manager, who had first served

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Figure 1 CUPIDE Organisational Structure 2005–2007

as its Project Manager. This continual change in PAC membership meant that it was always induct-ing new members who had to “find their feet” on the committee before they could contribute mean-ingfully to its decision-making. Given that the PAC met at most three times per year, it must havebeen challenging for new members to learn the history of the committee, the project, and theirresponsibilities in its effective operation.

The changing membership of the PAC meant that the Project Director/Operations Manager,the Technical Officer, and the CARICOM Representative were the “oral history” of the project andits implementation, and had the potential to wield undue influence over the decisions taken in thePAC, although they do not seem to have done so.

The changes in the various PAC representatives were due to retirement, departure from, orrecruitment to the respective institutions; however, the handovers of responsibility at the institu-tional level often occurred without any briefing of the new PAC members. In some cases, even thefile and reports received during the tenure of the individual vacating the post were not made avail-able to the new member. That reality, coupled with the initial frequency of changes in the PACmembership, meant that the PAC could not always function at optimum levels during the earlyyears of the project.30

The PAC Chairman commented on the willingness of the members to convene for teleconfer-ences when there was a need, or to meet virtually when decisions were needed:

. . . [Although we met only two or three times per year], members made themselves available whenthere was a need… people were eager to get things done . . . we met on the telephone when decisionshad to be taken, and we made ourselves available on short notice . . . I would send an e-mail and peo-ple would respond quickly . . . 31

There were also evident changes in the managerial levels of the representatives appointed bythe co-beneficiary universities to serve on the PAC. UniQ’s initial nominees were both Vice Presi-dents; the current representative is Assistant Dean of Engineering, Science and Architecture. BothUG’s and AdeKUS’s current representatives are IT Managers, although their predecessors weresenior academics. UTech’s current representative is the Associate Vice President Open and Dis-tance Learning, and all her predecessors had responsibility for distance education in the universityat that point in time. UWI’s representative is the UWIDEC Director; his predecessor was the project’s current Operations Manager, who still remains a member of – and secretary to – the PAC.The CARICOM representative is an upper-level manager in the Caribbean Community Secretariat.The UNESCO representative is the Education Programme Manager in the Kingston Office man-aging UNESCO’s Caribbean projects.32 Having senior decision-makers as members of the PAC wasimportant for the credibility of the committee and the recognition of CUPIDE’s importance in therespective universities and the region.

The PAC met more frequently than specified in the project proposal, which had indicated thatthe PAC was required to meet “. . . at least once per year.”33 Over the life of the project, the PAC


8

met twelve times. Frequently, these meetings were held by teleconference, which minimised coststo the representatives’ institutions and the project. These telephonic meetings could be arrangedrelatively quickly by e-mail, and allowed the PAC members to be involved in critical decisions asthey arose. Toward the end of CUPIDE, as project implementation accelerated, PAC meetings wereconvened quarterly.

2.3 Project budget

The total project value over the three-year project was calculated to be US$2,123,426. In the orig-inal project proposal, the total value of the Japanese contribution to CUPIDE was US$1,118,42634

over the life of the project with a US$919,000 per annum contribution in counterpart funding.Another US$1,005,000 was identified as an initial UWI contribution in existing telecommunica-tions infrastructure. In the revision of the project in 2004, this one-time US$1,005,000 contribu-tion became the counterpart contribution and the US$919,000 annual contribution was omitted.35

Discussion of the efficiency of funds disbursement within CUPIDE is contained in Section 7.2.4following (pp. 51–53).

2.4 Implementation schedule for the project

The original project proposal divided the activities in CUPIDE into two phases. In the initial phase,UWI and UG, both of whom relied heavily on print-based distance education strategies at theinception of the project, were to benefit from the strengthening of their materials distribution sys-tems, and consultants were to be contracted to conduct in-depth needs assessments and analysesof technical requirements in the five CUPIDE universities. In Phase 2, the focus was to be on imple-menting and/or strengthening electronically-enhanced distance education capacity in all five insti-tutions using the consultants’ reports as the basis for technology acquisition and human resourcedevelopment. In this way, CUPIDE would strengthen the capacity of the participating institutionsto offer courses by distance through use of both their conventional means and the use of informa-tion and communication technologies (ICTs).

Phase 1 was estimated to take one year, and the remainder of the project was to be completedin the following two years. Although developed and submitted for consideration in 2001, the actualstart date of Phase 1 was January 2003 and its completion date was established as December 31,2005.

In the light of the rapidly-changing distance education environment in the region and a lack ofclarity about how CUPIDE would relate to another regional distance education initiative, theCaribbean Knowledge and Learning Network (CKLN), the project was suspended for approxi-mately eight months between August 2004 and April 2005. The project was revised and resub-mitted in February 2005 with the same budgeted donor and counterpart contributions, and acompletion date of December 31, 2006.

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At the request of the CUPIDE Project Advisory Committee (PAC) and UNESCO’s interventionwith the donor, in November 2006 the end date of the project was extended to December 2007without any change in the budget or donor funds available.

2.5 Objectives of CUPIDE

2.5.1 The CUPIDE development objective

The development objective, as stated in the 2001 project document and reiterated in the 2005resubmitted proposal, was “. . . to develop the human resources within the region through enablingeach of the five participating universities to develop and deliver quality distance education programmes using ICTs.”36

The Terms of Reference for the evaluation refined the development objective slightly, identifyingthe development objective for CUPIDE as:

. . . to develop human resources within the region through enabling each of the five universities todevelop and deliver quality distance education programmes using information and communicationtechnology (ICT) and to develop an expandable framework to accommodate a multiplicity of tech-nologies.37

While the meaning of “to develop an expandable framework to accommodate a multiplicity oftechnologies” is rather obscure, the phrasing potentially enabled the project to meet the divergentneeds of the five participating universities in separate but useful ways, considering their experiencewith and readiness to undertake distance education in its multiple definitions.38

The five universities were at very different levels of development and capacity in their ability tooffer quality distance education in 2001 – and, indeed, even in 2007 at the conclusion of CUPIDE.The UWI has been offering courses by distance since 1980s via audio conferencing and, morerecently, by use of Web-based and internet support through their centres in non-campus territo-ries. UWI’s long history in distance education made it the natural leader in the project: it had bothexperience and staff to assist the other universities. However, UWIDEC had development aspira-tions for its own centres as well: it wanted to reduce the cost of printing and distributing coursematerials from its Mona operations to its centres in non-campus territories, and envisaged equip-ping these centres with reproduction and binding facilities, obviating the expense of shippingprinted materials from Jamaica to the rest of the Caribbean centres. UWIDEC’s desire tostrengthen and economise on its distribution of print learning materials for its distance courseswas the initial stimulus for the negotiation for funding support from the Japanese government.

As well as UWI, the University of Guyana had also been offering print-based distance educationcourses for more than a decade through its Institute for Distance and Continuing Education(IDCE). In view of their well-developed print-based distance education focus, UG and UWI wereenvisioned as the only beneficiaries of equipment and hardware under CUPIDE in Phase 1 of theproject.


10

UTech had begun to discuss distance education in 1996; however, concentrated efforts tostrengthen and use distance education as a means of expanding access to its programmes prior toCUPIDE were primarily espoused theory rather than practice, and its expenditure to develop dis-tance offerings using ICTs was minimal.39 Prior to and at the inception of CUPIDE, UTech’s dis-tance offerings were primarily in franchising initial years of undergraduate programmes tocommunity colleges and in offering the initial years of programmes at off-campus (outreach) sites.However, it was also piloting a teacher training project in two states40 in the Eastern Caribbeanusing a Commonwealth of Learning (COL) multi-media curriculum41 developed specifically forthat purpose. Although UTech was engaged in the development of on-line support for its distanceofferings, it had not yet attempted an on-line course, because it realised the inadequacy of its aca-demic staff’s training in developing or offering its courses using ICTs, and it had not yet decidedon the most suitable LMS platform in which to invest.

At the beginning of the project, neither UniQ in Haiti nor AdeKUS had yet ventured into theactual development of distance education because of the lack of equipment and trained personnel.

Therefore, the CUPIDE development objective was timely and relevant to all of the universities,and all five universities were eager participants in the project.

2.5.2 Specific objectives of CUPIDE

The CUPIDE proposal42 identified the following specific43 objectives of the project to:

• select appropriate enabling technologies and media;

• acquire appropriate hardware and software for the telecommunications network, materials distribution and reproduction, teaching and administration;

• identify programmes to be developed for delivery using ICTs and to develop them;

• identify and provide in the initial stage, and where necessary, technical assistance in the devel-opment of the technical, administrative and educational systems based on the use of ICTs;

• identify appropriate personnel (academic, administrative, technical) in each institution to betrained in ICTs for teaching, administration, and materials delivery, thereby building thehuman resource capacity in the provider institutions;

• train the persons who have to use the technology including students;

• establish with the support of CARICOM and other such bodies strategic linkages with providersand manufacturers;

• establish/strengthen links among universities;

• gather baseline data (including existing studies) on matters such as technology in the region;use of ICTs by the universities in the region for distance education; other initiatives in theregion, [and] learning styles;

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• develop projections of prospects for expansion to other institutions at different levels of theeducational system.

As stated in the revised project proposal, the intent of CUPIDE was regional co-operationthrough the designated tertiary institutions:

. . . the competitiveness of the region in general and the institutions in particular are to be enhanced;participation in the knowledge society increased – not only as users, but also as generators of knowl-edge – and cost savings realised in the use of the technology for distribution of the course materialsand the teaching and administration of programmes. Collaboration among the participating institu-tions is also to be enhanced.44

These objectives seem all-encompassing in light of CUPIDE’s development objective. They pres-ent a reasonable process and logical sequencing for achieving the capacity – both human and infra-structural – to accomplish the development objective and create a network of institutions in theCaribbean able to use ICTs to offer courses by distance.45

3.0 IMPLEMENTATION OF CUPIDE ACTIVITIES

3.1 Initial achievements in CUPIDE46 January 2003–October 2004

Much of the early project activity involved setting up the project accounts, obtaining signed con-tracts between UWI and the co-beneficiary universities, identifying office space and workingarrangements, recruiting the members of the PAC, launching the project, recruiting consultantsfor initial data gathering and analysis, and generally establishing the existence and credibility ofCUPIDE. Many of these activities required little or no project funds to accomplish, although theywere critically important.

3.2 CUPIDE launch, February 4, 2003

An inception meeting for the project, attended by senior administrators from each participatinguniversity, UNESCO and CARICOM also provided the opportunity for the official launch of theproject. The event, which was held in Jamaica, was chaired by the UWI Pro Vice Chancellor andattended by the Japanese Ambassador, and CARICOM and UNESCO representatives. The successof this event and the visibility it gave CUPIDE in Jamaica undoubtedly spurred the other univer-sities to consider how to publicise CUPIDE in their own countries – something with whichUNESCO whole-heartedly agreed.


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3.3 Launch of the CUPIDE e-mail address and website

The launch of the CUPIDE website and e-mail address and the design of the CUPIDE logo wereall accomplished early in the project using UWI Mona and UWIDEC resources. This use of existingUWI/UWIDEC services meant that CUPIDE obtained valuable support without using projectmonies.

Hosted by the Mona Information Technology Services (MITS), the e-mail address [email protected] was easily established in February 2003 by the Project Director, who operated fromthe UWIDEC offices on the Mona campus of UWI. Similarly, the Project Director enlisted the services of the UWIDEC graphic artist in the establishment of the CUPIDE website(www.cupide.org.jm) in May 2003. The UWIDEC graphic artist designed the CUPIDE logo andwebsite (with the Project Director) and the UWIDEC Web Administrator managed the website.These activities were deemed counterpart contributions to the project.47

3.4 Establishment of CARADOL

Under the apparent aegis of the CUPIDE PAC, a regional distance education network, theCaribbean Regional Association for Distance and Open Learning (CARADOL), was designed, pub-licized and developed in 2004 and launched in February 2005.48 This regional distance educationnetwork was quite complex in its structure: it had an executive and a number of sub-committeesto divide the workload and facilitate its operations. However, since its launch in 2005, the organ-isation has become moribund. Recently, following the final meeting of the PAC, UWIDEC hasapplied to CARICOM for funds to hold another regional meeting of CARADOL.49

A significant amount of energy was expended in the initial year of CUPIDE in the establishmentof CARADOL. The rationale for CARADOL’s development within the ambit of the project was thatsuch a regional network would “build collaboration among the participating universities,”50 whichwas one of CUPIDE’s specific objectives. However, to be successful, a regional distance educationorganisation would require membership from more sources than just the five CUPIDE universities.In the original project proposal there was a description of how the association would be developed,but no solid rationale for doing so. Indeed, the establishment of the association seemed to havebeen an “add-on” in the project document.

It appears that in its conception, CARADOL was ill-fated from the beginning. The fact that themembership of the executive of CARADOL overlapped significantly with CUPIDE PAC member-ship and executive positions held in the national distance education associations in Jamaica andTrinidad and Tobago (where there were existing distance education organisations) potentially contributed to the inability of the regional entity to flourish. While the national organisations arevisible and undertake initiatives that attract national media attention, it is more difficult – andsignificantly more expensive – for a regional organisation to attract membership, conduct meetingsand undertake meaningful initiatives unless meetings are going to be virtual and activities initiated

13





http://www.cupide.org.jm

around the region.51 A regional organisation requires a solid foundation of national organisationalpartners.

While CARADOL received good publicity at its launch in Trinidad and Tobago, since then, therehas been little activity in its committees; however, a fledgling institution such as this needed a sig-nificant amount of encouragement and nurturing for its survival and growth. This support waseven more difficult to engender, given the regional membership of the executive.

CARADOL was established to serve the Caribbean region – even those countries where therewas no existing national distance education organisation. There needed to be an expressed needfor regional collaboration in distance education, ideally arising from identified needs and anexpressed interest in collaboration among national distance education organisations. Therefore,there needed to be a sufficient number of national organisations in the Caribbean states to see theimportance of a regional network and work on the development of that association, and thereneeded to be people willing to work at developing and maintaining CARADOL who saw the benefitsof a regional alliance prior to the establishment of that regional entity. Given that there were atthe time of CARADOL’s inception, only two52 active national distance education associations, bothof which were in their infancy as well, it would seem that the regional association was establishedtoo early to flourish and sustain itself on its own.

If it is agreed that resuscitating CARADOL at the end of CUPIDE would be useful for regionalcollaboration in distance education, the CARADOL constitution should require country represen-tation of national distance education institutions on its executive – nominated to the executive fora set period of time by each national organisation – and that group should elect the CARADOLChairman from among those persons. It is extremely difficult to construct an effective regionaldistance education organisation from the regional level down to the national and local levels with-out a sufficient underpinning of corresponding national and local distance education institutions.It might be useful to examine some of the national organisations that exist in countries such asSouth Africa and Canada to see how local district and provincial (in the case of Canada) distanceeducation organisations inter-relate with distance education organisations at the national andinternational levels. The Commonwealth of Learning can be helpful in supplying examples fromwhich those wishing to revive CARADOL could benefit.

In the short term it might be more useful to build or strengthen national distance educationinstitutions and create meaningful linkages among these associations before trying to reviveCARADOL.

However, the CUPIDE objective was to launch a regional distance education association, andthe project did manage to accomplish that objective successfully and as scheduled. CUPIDE, too,received considerable press coverage and media visibility in Trinidad and Tobago with the launchin 2005.


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3.5 Technical consultancy by Mr. Ken Sylvester

The Sylvester consultancy was to:

• Recommend a framework and detailed implementation plan, including specifications of hard-ware, software, telecommunication channels and personnel required to support electronicallyenhanced distance teaching, administration and materials distribution.

• Define the minimum technical staff required to maintain the system[s] in good working orderfor continued independent use and to allow the universities (and in the future, other institu-tions) to collaborate in programme development and delivery with technologies.

• Provide estimates of the capital and recurrent budget required to procure, implement and sus-tain the capabilities and maintain the recommended technologies.53

The final report was to provide recommendations for

. . . [the] configuration of an integrated network infrastructure to allow the interconnection of varyingtelecommunications networks to allow the five participating universities to develop and share elec-tronically enhanced distance education programmes . . .54

As the TOR reflected, the focus in this consultancy was on the identification of the appropriatetechnology to operate a networked IT system among the five universities, identifying the hardware,software, systems, and training needed to operate and maintain the system(s) recommended andinstalled under the project.

The fact that this consultancy was executed separately – and in advance of – the Nicholas con-sultancy identifying human resource capability and management needs for distance education ineach university, meant that Mr. Sylvester focused exclusively on analysis of the existing ICT infra-structure in each university, and developed his recommendations for a networked system withassociated costs in isolation from some very real institutional and human resource constraints thatwere identified in the Nicholas Report.55

Given the assignment that he had, the recommendations in the Sylvester Report were usefuland reflected the technological development and expectations at the time he was writing.

The Sylvester Report recommended:

• A shift from the technology enhancements of the existing UWIDEC network projected in theoriginal project proposal to the use of Internet and Web technologies as the primary deliverychannel and development platform for primarily asynchronous delivery of distance educationprogrammes and for interconnection of the five participating universities;

• Two-way IP enabled VSAT terminals be provided to the five participating institutions includingthe distance education centres of The University of the West Indies and The University ofGuyana;

15


• A Satellite Service Provider be selected to provide a service to include the required space seg-ments and the supply and installation of the VSAT terminals to each institution;

• Each institution be provided with a Learning Management System of their choice that conformsto agreed international standards and within a specified price band;

• A Web Portal be developed or purchased as a platform for collaboration between the partici-pating universities;

• Training be provided to each university in the use of the Learning Management System (LMS)for courseware development and delivery;

• A technical consultant be retained to work with each institution to assist in the development ofbusiness plans for the delivery of distance education and facilitate the selection of ICT toolsand their implementation, [and]

• The UWI/UWIDEC and University of Guyana rethink their positions with regard to the use ofprinters for the production of course materials as outlined in the project proposal, since theproposed distribution of the printing of its course materials to its centres would be more costlythan its current operations of centrally printing and delivering materials to each location.56

These recommendations set the stage for the technology-related activities in CUPIDE: the devel-opment of the Web portal, the provision of two-way IP-enabled VSAT terminals for each institu-tion, the provision of assistance to strengthen the universities’ institutional capacity in leveragingICTs for delivery of distance education, the provision of available bandwidth, the selection of acommon satellite service provider, and the selection of a single Learning Management System(LMS).57

Asked about the importance and use of the Sylvester Report at UWI, one PAC member offeredthe following comment:

The . . . [Sylvester] Report provided additional support for the UWI’s strategic decision to move awayfrom connecting our various locations via a private telecommunication network towards using theInternet as the network backbone that connects each of us to all of us. The UWI ICT Directorate tookthe strategic decision to implement virtual learning systems based on FOSS technologies. We beganon the Mona campus by implementing OURVLE using Moodle. I believe the recommendation fromthe . . . [Sylvester] report helped to energize the adoption and rollout of Moodle across the entire uni-versity.58

The budget for CUPIDE did not permit the recruitment of a technical consultant for each uni-versity for any extended period of time. Accordingly, the PAC reinterpreted the recruitment of “atechnical consultant [in each institution] . . . to assist in the development of business plans for thedelivery of distance education and the selection of ICT tools” to mean the development of strategicplans for distance education in each institution and the provision of on-line training for each uni-


16

versity’s technical staff either through the UWI MITS or enrolment in the on-line O’Reilly MediaTraining.59 The strategic planning was initiated by a consultant who visited AdeKUS and UTechfor a short period of time – probably much shorter than Mr. Sylvester had envisioned.60

In making his recommendations – and, indeed, in undertaking his research – Mr. Sylvester wasworking with the understanding that broadband wireless connectivity would be available to alltertiary institutions in the region through E-Link Americas, a not-for-profit company that was toprovide satellite connectivity for tertiary institutions and development initiatives,61 established bythe Institute for Connectivity in the Americas (ICA) (www.icamericas.net) and incubated at theInternational Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Ottawa, Canada (www.idrc.ca). Unfortu-nately, after two years of planning for satellite connectivity through E-Link Americas, the PAC andCUPIDE universities learned that the company had collapsed and they would have to re-think amajor deliverable of the CUPIDE project – the provision of wireless broadband connectivity toeach institution at an affordable price.62

The final recommendation, to “rethink” investment in copiers and binding capability in eachuniversity, was somewhat ironic, given that in preliminary negotiations with the Japanese gov-ernment, the UWI originators of CUPIDE intended to strengthen the materials development anddistribution capability of UWI and UG in support of their existing paper-based distance educationsystems as the first priority in the project. Sylvester’s recommendation that UWI and UG “rethink”the need for such a local support system for printing and distributing materials must have comeas a disappointment to these two universities.

In fact, the PAC did reconsider the provision of printing and binding facilities to the respectiveuniversities; however, it determined that the provision of materials development and distributioncapacity to each of the universities, as well as developing on-line capabilities, would assist thedevelopment and offering of courses by distance in a range of modalities in the beneficiary uni-versities. The PAC saw the paper resources, at the very least, as complementary to the provisionof courses using ICTs. Accordingly, while each of the universities was provided with a high speedheavy duty photocopier to reproduce their printed distance education and/or support materials,the original objective of providing binding equipment and training selected staff in printing andbinding skills was limited to UWI/UWIDEC.63

Nevertheless, that “reconsideration” took a significant amount of time, and meant that the pro-vision of photocopiers to each institution was delayed until much later in the life of CUPIDE. Whenthe provision of photocopiers became an objective later in the project, an important considerationfor the UWI management team was to ensure that each university obtained a high speed copierthat could be serviced locally. Therefore, the Technical Officer requested that the respective PAC institutional members identify a company in their respective countries that could service thecopier that CUPIDE would provide for their institution. That request caused a challenge in twoco-beneficiary jurisdictions, where copier service contracts were not the norm. The ordering of thephotocopier for these two countries had been long delayed; however, the Consultant understandsthat negotiations for a service contract with the last supplier were completed in late 2007 and the

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http://www.icamericas.net

http://www.idrc.ca

copiers had been ordered, even if they were not yet delivered at the time of the Consultant’s visitin January 2008.64

3.6 Human resource and distance education consultancy – Mr. Ron Nicholas

The product of the Nicholas consultancy, which combined the objectives of three of the originalproject consultancies into one, was a thoughtful, comprehensive examination of all of the partneruniversities’ skills and challenges related to the implementation of distance education in late 2003and early 2004. The report’s recommendations provided a clear path for moving forward with dis-tance education, if the co-beneficiary institutions wanted to – and could afford to do so.

The Nicholas Report correctly identified the common challenge facing the five universities:

. . . all five universities share a critical need to develop plans and directions for future online anddistance education programmes, and. . . in order to do this successfully, a great deal must be accom-plished to become educated about the new technologies and teaching methods, and to become edu-cated about the specific needs and constraints of the targeted populations of prospective students forthese new, as yet to be defined programmes.65

Nicholas’s analysis of the situation in the participating universities was critically important tothe respective universities’ design of a distance education strategy based on “new technologies andteaching methods” and to the PAC’s being able to make informed decisions about the identificationof “the specific needs and constraints” of their target clientele.66 While CUPIDE might enable uni-versities to acquire cutting edge technologies (on the delivery side), the issue of the students’ abilityto access Web-based distance programmes, given their access to computers and the speed of theirconnectivity (on the reception side) must be factored into any decisions to adopt distance educationmodalities that have sophisticated programming features demanding reliable high speed broad-band connectivity.

Nicholas reached the following conclusion concerning the existing capacity of the five universi-ties:

There is a clear sense that almost every area of analysis or recommendation returns to a perceived needfor training . . . There are needs for [training in]:

• Project management and change management methods;

• Student marketplace assessment of needs and constraints;

• New technology infrastructures;

• Basic computer access and use;

• Online and distance education strategies, plans and tactics;

• Online and distance education new learning and teaching models;

• Online and distance education course development;

• Online and distance education course delivery;


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• Online and distance education technologies, and

• Online and distance education standards.

Each need (and there are many more) presumes that there are individuals with experience and necessaryskills who can confidently assume responsibility for the actions that must be completed to fulfil theseareas of need.67

It was quite clear – from the CUPIDE project information this Consultant reviewed to providethe historical context of the project’s operations and gathered through interviews and focusgroups – that there were many crucial skill gaps that needed to be addressed in the co-beneficiaryuniversities at the inception of the project – and even at the end of CUPIDE.

As the Technical Manager observed, “We have been able to plant a seed. . . [in two of the co-beneficiary universities], to nudge them a short way down the path to offering on-line andblended learning. . .”68

Nicholas listed the needs the CUPIDE universities shared in common as:

• [A] critical need to provide accessible education to improve the quantity and skill-levels of primary and secondary teachers, especially secondary;

• [A] compelling need to increase the number of technology programmes available, and tostrengthen the technology content of most programmes;

• [A] general need to supplement any programmes where local knowledge and content may belacking with access to global alternatives that Internet access can facilitate, and

• A basic fundamental need to design programmes that have great flexibility in terms of providingaccess to the greatest number of prospective students, while preserving necessary instructionalquality and efficacy, and accomplishing this within the realistic constraints of evolving tech-nology infrastructure and available resources, including funding.69

Nicholas also observed that:

. . . most of the participating CUPIDE universities and their key stakeholders feel grossly unpreparedto articulate the direction that should be taken with future online and distance education programmes. . . [T]here needs to be a significant effort to provide some comprehensive learning opportunities sothat individuals who must be involved in the change to new education formats are informed of theimpact that such potential change implies.70

The recommendations emerging from the Nicholas Report were that the CUPIDE universitiesundertake the following actions in relation to university programmes and their development fordistance and online education:

• Establish project teams at their respective institutions to oversee the planning, developmentand implementation of their respective online and distance education programmes;

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• Conduct specific research to ascertain the programme and constraints of the targeted tertiarystudents in each university’s targeted geography;

• Involve key project team members in some form of collaborative course development and trialprogramme in teacher development;

• Review and assess the baseline of existing online and distance education programme coursesfor collaborative potential;

• Develop (or revise) their specific plans, strategies and deployment tactics for online and dis-tance education;

• Include greater levels of technology content in programme courses and ensure that pro-grammes increasingly emphasise regional development needs in areas such as business andcommerce, entrepreneurship, agriculture, tourism and manufacturing;

• Establish processes to update individual online and distance education plans and strategies ona continuing basis and …[ensure] that the planning include mechanisms for regional collabo-ration.

Nicholas also developed a number of carefully-researched recommendations related to learningstyles, preferences, modalities, pedagogy, and distance education methods. He observed that, “Thekey issues to explore relate to the importance and influence of learning styles and preferences onthe selection of modalities and formats for distance education delivery.”71

Nicholas recommended that the CUPIDE universities:

• Have those receiving the education undertake an assessment of their learning style preferencesas a prerequisite step or requirement;

• Build some form of learning style measurement into the admissions process, especially for dis-tance students, and use the information in the selection of appropriate programmes and modelsof instruction;

• . . . Articulate the preferred default [instructional] modalities (there may be multiple for dif-ferent student segments) and reasons for the selection. The universities should then facilitatea review by each department head concerning their programmes and courses to assess theappropriate feasibility and related issues for courses identified as having market potential fordelivery by distance;

• Engage the education model training participants in facilitated dialogue on the appropriatenessof these strategies for each major Faculty Department . . .

The Nicholas Report (pages 275–303) presents several extremely valuable figures that sum-marise the requirements to implement distance education in a variety of modalities. These figurescan be extracted and used as checklists to reference skills development and decision-making inthe CUPIDE universities. The list of figures includes:


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• Affordances and limitations of various distance education modalities (Figure 7.1 pp. 275–76)

• Skills needed for all activities, roles and scenarios in creating distance education programmes(Figure 127, p. 289)

• Skills needed for certain specialised activities, roles & scenarios (Figure 128, p. 290)

• Skills needed for curriculum planning and design – all scenarios (Figure 129, p. 291)

• Skills needed for curriculum planning and design – other scenarios (Figure 130, p. 292)

• Skills needed for content research & management – all scenarios (Figure 131, p. 292)

• Skills needed for content research & management – other scenarios (Figure 132, p. 293)

• Skills needed for content/course development – all scenarios (Figure 133, p. 294)

• Skills needed for content/course development – other scenarios (Figure 134, p. 295)

• Skills needed for course delivery – all scenarios (Figure 135, p. 296)

• Skills needed for course delivery – all scenarios (continued…) (Figure 136, p. 297)

• Skills needed for faculty instructional support – all scenarios (Figure 137, p. 298)

• Skills needed for student instructional support – all scenarios (Figure 138, p. 299)

• Skills needed for technical support – all scenarios (Figure 139, p. 300)

• Skills needed for various ICT roles – all scenarios (Figure 140, p. 302)

• Skills needed for all ICT roles – various scenarios (Figure 141, p. 303).

Throughout the report Nicholas repeatedly stressed that he had very poor responses (i.e. com-pleted returns) to the surveys he circulated in the CUPIDE universities, and that the returns hedid receive did not constitute a significant sample size.72 He surmised that the reason for theunwillingness to complete the surveys may have been related to the targeted individuals’ unwill-ingness to show how little they knew or had done in relation to distance and online education:they were not willing to risk embarrassing themselves by demonstrating their lack of knowledgeand skill even though the survey was anonymous. This assumption about human behaviour in thecircumstances seems very plausible.

Nicholas emphasised the need for the professional development of teachers/ instructors whowere to be involved in distance education:

. . . technology can promote effective instruction that is more student-centred, interdisciplinary, moreclosely related to real life events and processes, and adaptive to individual learning styles. Suchinstruction encourages development of higher order thinking and information-reasoning skills (ratherthan memorisation of facts) among students, and socially constructed (collaborative) learning, all ofwhich are increasingly required in today’s knowledge-based global economy. This potential of tech-nology to improve instruction needs to be integrated (modelled) into the design and delivery of teacherprofessional development programs in the use of technology.73

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This particular link between electronically-enhanced instruction and changes that have beentaking place in learning and teaching over the past thirty years is especially important. It under-scores the fact that distance instruction using ICTs cannot be “business as usual.” Effective learningin an on-line or blended course offering requires different teaching methods to be useful to andsupportive of the learners.

The Nicholas Report is an extremely useful analysis of the human resource requirements fordeveloping and implementing distance education in any or all modalities. It contains careful ref-erences to research undertaken on the skills needed by instructors, programme and course devel-opers, and managers of distance programmes. It goes beyond mere mention of professionaldevelopment strategies to recommending a way of collaborating after CUPIDE concludes.

The usefulness of this report extends far beyond CUPIDE; nevertheless, it could have informedthe selection and/or design of training programmes offered to persons who needed training toparticipate in CUPIDE, and the development of distance programmes and courses under the proj-ect. However, the length of the report,74 and its density of research and recommendations make itdifficult for busy people – like the members of the PAC – to digest and use as a basis for action. Infact, the synopsis of the content and recommendations undertaken by the CUPIDE Project Directorappeared to be as close as the PAC representatives got to analysing the content of the NicholasReport.

In her visits to the five universities, the Consultant did not find that the recommendations inthe Nicholas Report were visibly being implemented or informing activities in which staff was cur-rently engaged to develop distance education in their respective institutions. The only documentedevidence that the Nicholas Report had been read by any member of the PAC appeared in the PACMinutes, where the Chairman noted that the Nicholas Report was useful for other CARICOM ini-tiatives beyond CUPIDE, and in a very brief summary report of the Nicholas Report prepared bythe Project Manager.

By e-mail the Consultant asked the current PAC members whether they had the Nicholas Reportat hand, whether they had read it, and whether they had used or were planning to use its recom-mendations in the development of distance education in their institutions. Three PAC represen-tatives reported that they had not read the Nicholas Report, were unfamiliar with itsrecommendations, and, in fact, did not receive it in the CUPIDE files when they assumed theresponsibilities of the PAC representative for their institution.

One institutional PAC member responded as follows:

Nothing has been done with the reports. . . [my university] can’t do anything because it has no fundsto commit to on-line distance education. . . . It has relied on CUPIDE to develop these distance edu-cation capabilities.75

The Operations Manager responded that, as far as she was aware, the following Nicholas Reportrecommendations had not been implemented in the co-beneficiary universities:


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• Establishment of project teams to oversee the planning and development of their distance pro-grammes76

• Administration of a learning styles preference inventory to those undertaking training (staffand students)

• Conduct of research to ascertain programme and constraints of the targeted tertiary studentsin each university’s catchment area;

• Review and assessment of the baseline of existing online and distance education programmecourses for collaborative potential;

• Inclusion of some form of learning style measurement into the admissions process, especiallyfor distance students, and use the information in the selection of appropriate programmes andmodels of instruction

• Involvement of key university members in some form of collaborative course development andtrial delivery of a programme in teacher development77

• Further exploration of opportunities to collaborate in the following areas:

• Project planning and management;

• Student marketplace needs and constraints assessment;

• Human resource professional development;

• Online and distance education strategic and tactical planning;

• Implementation of standards, methods, modalities, policies, etc.;

• Programme/course co-development and

• Change management;

• Pursuit of collaborative technology opportunities that may provide for regional savings andeconomies of scale;

• Review of the potential for some form of “Virtual University” environment among the regionaltertiary institutions.78

The length of this list indicates the breadth and depth of the Nicholas recommendations, ratherthan inadequacies in the CUPIDE universities’ response to them. Since the five participating insti-tutions were at such different points in their development and implementation of distance educa-tion, it was undoubtedly very difficult to undertake some of the recommendations for researchand collaboration as a group. However, these recommendations remain both relevant and usefuland could inform ongoing distance education development in the co-beneficiary universities, eitherunder the aegis of CKLN or through other collaborative partnerships.

A careful examination of those unimplemented recommendations also reveals that each of them,except perhaps the penultimate one, has significant cost implications for the institutions whichfall outside the CUPIDE ambit or funding.

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The Chair of the PAC stated that the recommendations of the Nicholas Report had been used asfollows:

The Ron Nicholas Report actually paved the way and gave direction to many of CUPIDE’s initiative suchas . . .

1. Helping participating universities to identify programme needs and human resource needs. Theywere able to make recommendations to CUPIDE re: training, course development and technicalassistance;

2. The Consultation for Collaboration79 of tertiary level institutions was a strong recommendation;this was based on his findings at the universities;

3. The need to work collaboratively with the private sector . . .

The universities benefited from the Report and will continue to if they endeavour to implement his rec-ommendations. This will enhance their competitiveness.80

Perhaps the greatest benefit of the Nicholas Report was not in its immediate contribution to theCUPIDE universities, but in the human resource and management blueprint it has provided forthe institutions to develop their distance education capabilities in the future, as the PAC Chairmanhas stated.

A useful summary of the recommendations from both the Sylvester and Nicholas Reports wasincluded in the resubmitted project proposal.81

Given the general usefulness of the Nicholas Report to any development of institutionally-baseddistance education, and the fact that a number of the current PAC members have not read or can-not locate the Nicholas Report, it would be useful to sub-divide the report into sections, reproduceeach section, and circulate these to the PAC members again in this more digestible form. It wouldalso be very useful to share the Nicholas Report with the members of the management team of theCaribbean Knowledge and Learning Network (CKLN).

Both the Sylvester Report and the Nicholas Report recommended the recruitment of a “technicalconsultant” to work with the co-beneficiary universities in developing a business plan and a strate-gic plan for distance education, and to assist in staff training for the development of on-linecourses. This recommendation could not be pursued by CUPIDE, because the budget had not foreseen the recruitment of such persons. Accordingly, the technical assistance that was madeavailable to the universities was divided into shorter consultancies which CUPIDE could affordand the on-line O’Reilly Media Training course.

These short term consultancies82 were strategic and certainly advanced the project’s implemen-tation.


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4.0 CUPIDE ACTIVITIES NOVEMBER 2004–MARCH 2005

The only documented activities in this period appear to have been the attempted collaboration inon-line course development between UWI (MITS) and UTech (CEODL), the maintenance of theCUPIDE website,83 and the reported attempt to hold a regional consultation on collaborationamong the universities.84 The initial collaboration between UTech and UWI to develop a jointcourse was fraught with hiccups and difficulties, including the departure of the UTech course devel-oper from the university and the discovery that her contributions to the on-line course had notbeen sanctioned by UTech. This attempt to create an on-line course out of the combination of exist-ing UWI and UTech courses was eventually abandoned. The two universities had to “start fromscratch” after CUPIDE was re-started.

The CUPIDE Project Manager submitted no reports to UNESCO in this time period because theCUPIDE project activity was suspended in August 2004. However, in light of the changes in thedistance education landscape at the tertiary level, the UWI management team re-wrote theCUPIDE project proposal and re-submitted it to UNESCO in February 2005. The project resumedoperations in late April, 2005.

The significant change in the tertiary distance education landscape was the advent of CKLN, amulti-donor agency initiative intended to support, develop and nurture distance education in thetertiary institutions of the Caribbean.85 When CKLN initially arrived on the development sceneand began its operations, it generated some uncertainty in UNESCO and UWI about the ways inwhich CUPIDE and CKLN could collaborate and/or would complement each other. There was con-siderable discussion about how CUPIDE activities might be able to inform CKLN and whether tofold the CUPIDE project activities into CKLN, or allow the two projects to continue in parallel,even though there was some potential for activities overlapping.

JFIT and UNESCO ultimately agreed that since CUPIDE was already advanced in its fundingand had begun implementation, it should continue its operations. The programmes and coursesdeveloped through CUPIDE could be supported by CKLN’s brokering the provision of satelliteconnectivity through E-Link Americas.86

From the time of its revision, the CUPIDE stakeholders believed that the similarities betweenCUPIDE’s objectives and some of CKLN’s objectives might enable CUPIDE to inform CKLN’s activities.

4.1 The revised CUPIDE project proposal

The revised proposal document changed the project name to CUPIDE and dropped the longer andmore awkward title of the original. In “Outline of the revision of the project,” the CUPIDE man-agement team asserts that the general objective and the beneficiaries of the project remain thesame as in the original proposal; however,

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. . . [it] identifies outputs, activities and an implementation framework that are aligned with the rec-ommendations of the two CUPIDE consultants and changes that have taken place since the develop-ment of the original proposal, particularly the CARICOM Connectivity Agenda and CARICOM Headsof Government endorsement of the Caribbean Knowledge and Learning Network (CKLN) project asthe implementation mechanism for ICT-enabled distance education programmes for tertiary levelinstitutions in the Caribbean.87

The immediate (specific) objectives of the revised CUPIDE proposal were as follows:

• To collaboratively develop the pilot course on distance education;

• To (further) develop the institutional strategic plans for distance education incorporating theuse of ICT;

• To develop and implement a mechanism for electronic distribution of materials;

• To develop a Web portal;

• To implement the VSAT network based on E-Link Americas recommended in the IT report;

• Based on the strategic plan of each institution, to identify specific programmes. . . staffingrequirements and training for each of the universities;

• To identify appropriate personnel (academic, administrative, technical) in each institution tobe trained in ICT for teaching, administration, and materials delivery, thereby building thehuman resource capacity in the provider institutions;

• To provide where necessary technical assistance in the development of the technical, adminis-trative, and educational systems based on the use of ICT;

• To train the persons who have to use the technology including students;

• To identify the requisite recurrent budgetary support;

• To establish with the support of CARICOM and other such bodies strategic linkages withproviders and manufacturers;

• . . . [Work] with CARADOL to continue to strengthen the links among the universities and otherinstitutions;

• To develop projections of prospects for expansion to other institutions at different levels of theeducational system;

• To evaluate the project.88

In actual fact, the immediate objectives are almost the same as those of the original proposal.The revised proposal has, however, omitted the objectives that had been achieved in the initialphase and addressed by the Sylvester and Nicholas consultancies in their reports.

In February 2005, the revised CUPIDE project proposal was submitted to UNESCO, and in lateApril 2005, with the agreement of the Japanese Government, the project resumed operations withthe same donor and counterpart contributions and a revised timeline of completion at the end of2006 for its activities.


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5.0 CUPIDE ACTIVITIES APRIL 2005–DECEMBER 2007

The project was re-started in late April 2005;89 however, as noted in the quarterly report toUNESCO, authorisation to re-start the project was received late in April, meaning that one monthof the quarter was almost over when it re-initiated activities.

The UWI management team also believed that it was imperative to hold a PAC meeting to reviewplans for implementation of the project as a first activity. That meeting was held in Jamaica inMay 2005, meaning that almost two months of the quarter were over before activities could beginagain.

The activities that were agreed for the following quarter were the initiation of the strategic plan-ning consultancy and UWI/UTech’s collaboration on the development of an on-line course.

5.1 Development and offering of the first e-learning course through CUPIDE

This immediate objective, the collaboration between UWI and UTech in developing the initialCUPIDE e-learning course using on-line or blended methodologies, was originally scheduled forthe first year of the project; however, as noted previously, the inter-institutional collaboration andcompletion of the task proved challenging.

After reviewing the history of the course development, in 2005 the Project Director suggestedthat the four units of the course on e-learning be divided between the two institutions,90 eachtaking responsibility for two of the units. An understanding among the five universities agreeingto the free use of the course material was signed in December 2005, and the course was finallycompleted and ready for distribution in July, 2006. The course was shared with the other univer-sities on CD in October 2006, and first use of the course was scheduled for January to March 2007.From the point of dividing the course into four units and assigning institutional responsibility fortheir development to completion of the task took from April 2005 until July 2006; it took anotherthree months for it to be shared among the institutions, and another two months for the course tobe offered in the respective universities. Clearly, this was an exhausting and painful process.

The development of this course – which, luckily, wasn’t . . . [a course offered] for credit – was certainlya learning experience – we probably learned more about how not to do collaborative course develop-ment in this process than we could have done any other way. . . people’s time was limited, and . . .[when we met] we had to meet after regular business hours to discuss what we were doing. . . thequality assurance of the course was also an important component.91

An evaluation of the course development process conducted by the CUPIDE Operations Man-ager provides some important reflections and observations. The evaluation report quoted onerespondent as saying:

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. . . the [course development] process will require greater clarity of vision and common goals, realisticexpectations of institutional contribution, increased mentorship and overall dialogue about theprocess for reflective learning-in-action.92

The Marrett evaluation identified a number of issues and challenges that would need to beaddressed in any future collaborative course development efforts:

• The assurance of institutional ownership of the material

• Institutional readiness to collaborate

• The collaborative process used

• Human resource and time constraints

• Satisfaction with the output93

In her recommendations, Marrett pointed out:

There must be institutional commitment to the collaborative development of courses. The [CUPIDE]universities do not have a strong history of collaboration in the joint development and offering ofcourses/programmes. If this is lacking, no matter the commitment of individuals, the process will behampered. . . [Once there is agreement on collaboration] . . . the requisite resources within each col-laborating institution. . . need to be assigned. . .

Communication among all the parties involved in the collaborative development. . . [needs] to be sustained throughout the process, with review meetings (electronic or face-face) scheduled at regularintervals.. . . design elements [for on-line or electronic courses] will need to be agreed from the outset.94

The most significant observation relating to the course development process was that this exer-cise was just that – an exercise. The context within which the course was developed was that it wasproject-based: it was developed outside the regular university academic programme and scheduleof classes. The course development was not driven by a time-bound imperative in terms of its beingoffered to a specific group at a specific time. The “petrie dish” project-based context of the coursedevelopment and the prolonged period over which the course was developed undoubtedly affectedthe commitment of the individuals involved; all of the course developers (except for the paidinstructional designers) had other work-related priorities to which they had to attend.

Indeed, when the course was actually prepared and delivered, there was no commitment in anyof the universities to actually use the product – even in the two that developed it. The fact that thecourse was not for credit and had to be translated for UniQ’s (and, perhaps AdeKUS’s) use, thatUWI and UTech, the two collaborating universities, thought that the course would be more usefulto the other three universities than to them,95 and that the content addressed is technology-basedlearning potentially reduced the usefulness of the course in the other universities. In many ways,this experience was more an action research project about the challenges of inter-institutional


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collaboration than the positive experience of developing an on-line course for use by the five partners.

Nevertheless, the course development process identified the stages, issues and potential chal-lenges in on-line or electronic course development quite effectively.

As is reported later in this evaluation, the course development experience has been accomplishedmore quickly and has been more productive in the other CUPIDE universities than it seems tohave been in this particular case, which was a specific objective under the project. However, its having been project-driven rather than needs-driven may have been one of the causes of itschallenges.

5.2 Identification and purchase of equipment for the CUPIDE universities96

The equipment procurement for all of the universities was primarily carried out under the aegisof the CUPIDE Technical Officer using the UWI procurement system. One university PAC memberobserved,

[Using the single procurement system] was very helpful, since trying to use [my university’s] pro-curement system would have caused me serious headaches and. . . [meant] endless delays. As it was,I simply informed . . . [the university’s Financial Manager] that the equipment was being procured atno cost to the university, and we moved forward. . .97

This observation reflects the benefit of having used a single procurement system rather thaninvolving five different procurement systems for each of the equipment purchases. There is nodoubt that the bureaucracy of the UWI procurement system slowed the provision of equipmentunder CUPIDE; however, since similar systems exist in all of the other universities, multiplyingthe difficulties by five would have made the equipment acquisition virtually impossible within thetime constraints of the project. The equipment acquisition for the UNESCO direct provision con-tracts with each university in the final year of CUPIDE demonstrated this complexity.

The Technical Director offered another benefit of centralising the equipment orders for com-puters and servers:

The project was able to take advantage of an agreement that UWI had negotiated with Dell. Whenthe specifications for the computers were agreed, I submitted a combined order… [for all the com-puters] to Dell, which saved a considerable amount of money.98

Late in the project, when it was clear that there were funds available for the acquisition of addi-tional equipment under CUPIDE from remaining monies in the budget, UNESCO allocated eachof the co-beneficiary universities a US$25,000 budget for the purchase of equipment they neededto enhance and/or complement their use of ICTs in the educational process. These funds were dis-bursed directly by UNESCO under individual contracts with the co-beneficiary universities, ratherthan through UWI.99

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5.3 Development of strategic plans for distance education in co-beneficiaryuniversities

As noted in the initial consultancies, strategic planning and the resulting operational plans to integrate that planning into existing instruction were crucial to the effective development andimplementation of ICT-assisted distance education, whether on-line or blended with face-to-faceclasses or other multimedia options. CUPIDE reorganised its activities in the revision of the projectto include strategic planning as a precursor to any other training offered through the project.

Strategic planning workshops were conducted at three of the participating universities. UWIand UWIDEC were already actively involved in a strategic planning exercise in their universitiesthat included plans for the operation of distance education; UG was engaged in a strategic planningexercise funded by CKLN at approximately the same time as the CUPIDE strategic planning con-sultancy was scheduled, and, therefore, didn’t need the consultancy. While the CKLN strategicplanning event at UG did not correspond exactly with CUPIDE’s scheduled time frame, theCUPIDE Strategic Planning Consultant successfully completed her work at UTech and AdeKUSby December 2005.100

The UniQ strategic plan for distance education was developed with the assistance of a French-speaking consultant working from his home in Canada because of the Haitian political situationduring the scheduled period of this consultancy. This approach to strategic planning was less thanideal, because the managers and implementers were only peripherally involved in writing thePlan.101 Therefore, although CUPIDE experienced some delays in undertaking the strategic plan-ning consultancies according to their originally-scheduled time frame, all of them reported thatthey had a strategic plan for distance education and blended learning that would gradually increasethe number of courses offered by electronically-enhanced distance education and blended modal-ities by the end of the project in December 2007.

Perhaps one of the most valuable observations about the importance of an institutional strategicplan which addresses the incorporation of distance education as a learning/teaching modality wasmade by one of the Moodle Training Consultants in relation to UWI,102 the institution with thelongest history of involvement with distance education. After reviewing UWI’s Strategic Plan andexamining its plans for distance education, the Consultant observed:

. . . Clearly, the reason that the university is pushing for technology in the classroom (ET) or utilizingdistance modes (DE) either partially or totally online must be established and explicitly articulated.The answer to this question is not obvious . . . [in the Strategic Plan]. If the institution is doing it fora superficial reason, such as, “all the other universities are doing it,” or there is a “technological imper-ative” (technology driving the process), then any programmes resulting from that effort will probablynot be well thought out or resourced.103

This particular observation is one worth sharing and emphasising with the other CUPIDE uni-versities – and any other educational institutions considering the potential of ICTs in distanceeducation.


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Of course, a strategic plan by its very nature has to remain a living document: it must be trans-lated to and supported with costed operational activities, and regularly updated to retain its rele-vance and currency. UniQ is planning a revision of its Strategic Plan for Distance Education in2008; UWI has moved beyond the plans it had for distance education in 2006 with the currentimplementation of its fourth “Open” or “Virtual” Campus in 2008; UTech regularly updates itsstrategic plans every two or three years, and UG is scheduled to receive further strategic planningassistance from CKLN in 2008. AdeKUS developed a useful strategic plan for distance education;however, its implementation has been somewhat delayed because of the challenges of bandwidthfor offering programmes using ICTs.

5.4 Identification of the Learning Management System (LMS) and training in its use

The CUPIDE universities’ agreement to use a common LMS in all of the universities was informedby the Technical Consultant’s recommendation in November 2004 and the review of emergingopen source alternatives at the time that the PAC was deciding on an LMS platform. The PAC wasadvised by the Director of the Mona Information Technology Services (MITS), the Technical Officerfor CUPIDE and other IT Managers in the participating universities. The PAC agreed on the adop-tion of Moodle; however, to save time as the end of the project approached, the PAC agreed to theaward of separate consultancies for training in the use of the Moodle LMS.

AdeKUS requested a Dutch-speaking consultant, and, indeed, recommended one who hadworked with the university previously. This consultant also conducted the Moodle training atUG.104 A Trinidad-based consultant provided the Moodle training for UWI and UTech. Trainingfor a reported 131 members of academic staff in four of the five CUPIDE universities (including allthree UWI campuses) was completed by March 31, 2006.

Training for the UniQ staff was postponed because of travel restrictions on Haiti, and, eventu-ally, two UniQ staff members were trained at UWI St. Augustine in late August 2006. When travelrestrictions were eased late in the project, CUPIDE supported the mounting of a two-part coursein e-Learning (including a hands-on workshop in the use of the Moodle LMS) for 15 UniQ staff105

in Haiti in late April and early May 2007.106

In total, 146 members of academic staff and 40 members of administrative staff in the five uni-versities107 were trained in course development and support using the Moodle LMS. Intensivetraining was provided for a reported 38 members of academic staff across the five universities. AtUWI and UTech, the Consultant also conducted sensitisation sessions for a total of 40 senior man-agers and administrators in addition to the training workshops for academic staff. The Consultantsreported the provision of training for a combined total of 20 students – only at UTech andAdeKUS.108

The training has resulted in an increased interest in the development of e-learning and face-to-face courses supported by on-line resources, and the initiation or expansion of on-line or blendedcourse development at all of the participating universities.109

The importance of training students in the use of the LMS is critically important, as they arethe eventual clients of the on-line and/or blended courses. Their access to and familiarity with thesoftware and learning platform are vital to the success of e-learning initiatives. However, the uni-versities may have felt that, given the level of development of on-line courses in their institutions,it was too early to involve the students in the training, and that they needed to focus on the coursedevelopers first, rather than the students.

5.4.1 Quality of the Moodle training consultancies

The reports from all three of the Moodle Training Consultants reflect their knowledge of, compe-tence in, and enthusiasm for the potential of electronically-enhanced distance education and theMoodle LMS. They each provided a foundation and background for Moodle in the introduction totheir workshops, so that the context of each Moodle training workshop was significantly broaderthan the Moodle LMS alone.

The learning strategies each Consultant reports having employed in the Moodle training work-shops models the instructional strategies recommended in the courses. Each went beyond therequired parameters of the TOR to “sell” the advantages and requirements of on-line instruction,and provided additional advice to the respective universities in which they provided the Moodleworkshops. The final reports of each of the Moodle Consultants would be of value in the largerenvironment of the universities. In fact, because of the differences in approach to their workshopsettings, the sharing of all of the Consultants’ final reports would be of value in all of the CUPIDEuniversities.

5.5 CUPIDE-related programme/course development in co-beneficiary universities using the Moodle LMS for blended and/or on-line coursedevelopment

All four of the co-beneficiary universities110 have developed or are in the process of developing atleast one on-line or blended course as a result of CUPIDE and the training provided in the use ofthe Moodle platform for course development. One of the most notable successes in the use of theMoodle platform for on-line support for a face-to-face course has taken place in the AdeKUS Med-ical School. During a focus group with the Consultant at the university, the course developer, whois an instructor in the Medical School reported:

The students [in this particular class] used to call me “The Butcher,” because the failure rate when Ifirst taught the course was as high as 90% of every class.111 . . . They hated me and they hated the class.Now, since I have put the support materials for the course on line, my pass rate is 90% and the studentslove me and the course. . . .I have developed self tests for the students at the end of each unit [in thecourse], and they can go on line and review their work using these tools . . . It works extremely well.112


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As a result of this instructor’s success, in Academic Year 2007/08 the AdeKUS Medical Schoolinstructors are offering on-line support for five different courses. This example illustrates the factthat an “early adopter”113 of a new technology in course offerings can have a positive influence onhis peers: the success of this single instructor, who is the Medical School’s “early adopter” of theMoodle LMS, has encouraged his peers to use the same techniques for their courses, even as hehimself expands the number of courses that he supports with on-line resources.

At UTech, the School of Technical and Vocational Education undertook a project in St. Vincentwhich has proven to be an excellent opportunity for two lecturers, who received the Moodle train-ing offered through CUPIDE, to use the LMS. They both used blended modalities to offer theircourses – some face-to-face classes combined with on-line support, e-mail communication, dis-cussion boards and posted learning resources – to support the postgraduate Diploma in Leadershipthat UTech developed for the St. Vincent Principals. They combined their use of the Moodle LMSplatform with scheduled face-to-face classes offered in St. Vincent. The on-line features of thecourse supported and augmented the students’ on-line coursework and contributions when thelecturers were back in Jamaica. The students submitted their assignments on-line and participatedin guided discussions which the lecturers managed and monitored from Jamaica.

The lecturers used the St. Vincent Diploma programme as a case study of the effectiveness ofblended course offerings with adult learners pursing management courses. They collected someextremely valuable data on the experience of the learners pursuing this programme – their first –in a blended modality.114 Most interesting was the fact that all of the students enrolled in the pro-gramme passed, and they all reported that they enjoyed the on-line components, even though theexperience of blended courses and on-line learning was new to them.

At present each of the five Faculties at UTech is in the process of developing on-line and/orblended course offerings with leadership from the OCEODL and support from the Office of Cur-riculum Development and Evaluation (OCDE).115 However, many of the challenges that arose inthe development of the initial collaborative course developed under CUPIDE (e.g. course devel-opers’ substantive workload and release time to work on courses in a new modality; reward forcourse development, and a defined delivery date for the course to be integrated into the UTechprogramme offerings) are faced by the current course developers at UTech. As a result, the Con-sultant believes that the likelihood of the courses being developed and offered in a timely manneris doubtful. If there is no recognition of the value of what the course developers are doing, theyare not likely to make the course development a priority. Indeed, the fact that the courses in theSt. Vincent programme had to be completed and offered within an identified time frame, and thatthe lecturers involved were reimbursed for the work they did in developing the courses were tworeasons that the course development was successful.

However, the recently-appointed President of UTech has announced that he recognises theimportance of distance education as a source of additional revenue for UTech, and is directing hisenergies to its development in the university. With this kind of support from the very top of the institution, the course developers may be able to overcome some of the difficulties they face,

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if on-line and blended courses are made a priority by senior management who recognise the chal-lenges of on-line course development in addition to their regular duties.

At UG, the Director of the IDCE has been using the Moodle platform to convert some of theface-to-face and print-based offerings to a blended modality, and other instructors have also beenworking on the development of on-line support for their face-to-face courses. To date, none havebeen offered to students. In a focus group setting, four lecturers reported that they were developingor had already developed on-line or blended courses; however, they were of one voice in complain-ing that at the time when they could actually work on their courses, the university shut the serverdown.116 Therefore, their course development was taking much longer than they believed it shouldhave to. They were very frustrated by this situation.117

The UG situation reflects one that exists in many Caribbean universities – even the betterresourced and more distance education “savvy.” The cost and availability of sufficient bandwidthto support a well-developed interactive distance learning course on-line or even partially on-lineis prohibitively expensive.118 Indeed, the cost of bandwidth in a number of the participatingCUPIDE university countries is exorbitantly high, and will challenge the efforts to develop andintroduce on-line distance education until such time as the bandwidth to be provided underCUPIDE is available to them. Thereafter, it will be a matter of negotiating continued access to thataffordable bandwidth.

At UniQ, while they have yet to put any courses on-line, they are in the process of developingtwo complete on-line courses: Principles of Management and Introduction to Economics. Thesetwo courses are scheduled for offering in 2008.

UniQ is in the enviable position of having two distance education consultants, both with Master’sdegrees in distance education: one is a Librarian and one is an IT specialist. These two specialists(the only two people with Master’s degrees in distance education in Haiti) have been supportedthrough CUPIDE and work out of the Rector’s Office. This arrangement allows UniQ to offer sup-port to the course developers in critical areas, and move forward with plans for distance educationin a determined manner. And, once again, as at UTech, the determination of the senior manage-ment to use distance education as a priority offers support to course development and the offeringof on-line courses.

5.6 Development of the CUPIDE Web portal

Although the CUPIDE website (www.cupide.org) was developed in the first year of the project, thedevelopment of a Web portal that could host on-line courses was not developed until the final yearof the project when there were actually courses to mount on the site.

The portal is accessed through the website (www.cupide.org/moodle). This portal was plannedas the place where CUPIDE universities could share the courses they developed and facilitate theuse of these courses across all participating universities. Possibly, because only a few courses have


34

http://www.cupide.org

http://www.cupide.org/moodle

been fully developed in the CUPIDE universities, the mounting of courses on the portal has beenless than a success to date.119

The hope of the UWI management was that CKLN would take over the portal and offer its useto regional tertiary institutions. However, CKLN has not done so to date.120

6.0 OWNERSHIP AND RELEVANCE OF CUPIDE AND ITS OUTCOMES

While UWIDEC originally initiated the project as a single university project, from the moment itwas determined that the project could benefit other universities in the region, the partner institu-tions and CARICOM were actively involved in the development and implementation of theCUPIDE proposal. They collectively agreed on the project components and schedules for activities,and signed agreements with both UWI (as the executing agency) and later with UNESCO (for dis-bursement of funds for technical assistance and provision of equipment to individual universities)to facilitate the project’s implementation.

Ownership of the process and the project in any institution must emanate from the top man-agement. The project design included senior administration of each university in the PAC.

The significance of having the PAC chaired by CARICOM was also important, since CUPIDEwas a regional project. CARICOM provided a neutral voice in the universities’ discussions andensured that the progress of CUPIDE was recognised at a regional level.

The PAC121 was the primary vehicle through which the CUPIDE was able to encourage and nur-ture the involvement of the participating universities. Each university appointed a high level man-ager as a member of the PAC. Through the PAC, the participating institutions were able tocollaborate actively in the project’s decision-making processes, begin to build co-operative initia-tives with each other, and ensure that their interests were protected and advanced throughCUPIDE.

The institutional and personal commitment of the PAC representatives to the project significantlyfacilitated the production of the outputs. This may in part be attributed to the fact that all the insti-tutions had input in the design of the project.122

The technical, human resource, strategic planning and Moodle training consultancies executedunder CUPIDE actively involved staff at all of the participating institutions in data collectionprocesses, discussions, training and the crafting of recommendations included in the consultants’reports.

Certainly, the equipment provided to the universities under the project and the training receivedin each university were discussed and agreed with them, and have been – and continue to be –both useful and relevant.

The relevance of the concept of CUPIDE and objectives to the participating countries and the

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Caribbean region are reflected in the fact that a number of institutional funding institutions (IFIs)came together subsequent to the inception of CUPIDE to support a larger-scale project similar123

in its intent to CUPIDE: the CKLN.124 It is possible that CKLN may be able to build on the accom-plishments of CUPIDE in the five participating universities and apply the lessons learned inCUPIDE to its own initiatives.125 Indeed, at one point, as mentioned earlier in this report, CUPIDEwas suspended in order to determine whether the overlap in the projects indicated that CUPIDEshould be folded into CKLN, or could continue on its own. It was finally decided that CUPIDEshould continue, as its accomplishments, and the lessons learned during its implementation couldserve to provide information for CKLN in its decision-making and the implementation of its man-date to serve all of the tertiary learning institutions (TLIs) across the region.126

7.0 EFFICIENCY OF CUPIDE’S IMPLEMENTATION

A cursory examination of the duration of CUPIDE, from its start in January 2003, to its completionat the end of 2007, indicates slow implementation at the beginning of this collaborative initiativeamong the participating universities.

However, there were several unanticipated factors and external events that need to be consid-ered in evaluating the efficiency of CUPIDE’s implementation. The political instability in Haiti,elections in Suriname, Guyana and Jamaica, and natural disasters like flooding in Guyana andthree severe hurricanes – Ivan, Dean and Emily – that struck Haiti and Jamaica during the courseof CUPIDE disrupted normal life in the countries affected and impacted negatively on the scheduleof activities in CUPIDE. Finally, considering the six-month project suspension from August 2004to February 2005 and the one-year extension granted in November 2006, the project did quitewell in hindsight: CUPIDE took four years – even in face of its challenges – to implement all sched-uled activities and accomplish its planned objectives.

7.1 Lack of clarity in the relationship between CUPIDE and CKLN

The CKLN, which was developed without reference to CUPIDE, has more ambitious and wide-ranging objectives for distance education in the Caribbean than CUPIDE; however, when CKLNwas launched, there was some consideration of incorporating CUPIDE into CKLN in the latermonths of 2004, and during these discussions, CUPIDE activity was temporarily suspended.

However, when UNESCO and JFIT compared the objectives of CUPIDE and CKLN carefully,they agreed that, given the fact that CUPIDE was already funded and had begun implementing itsobjectives while CKLN had yet to begin its operations,127 CUPIDE should proceed. The CUPIDEdonors anticipated that CUPIDE could provide useful lessons for CKLN, and initiate collaborativeactivity in the CUPIDE universities on which CKLN might be able to build.


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Another significant occurrence that influenced the project’s continuation was CARICOM’s adop-tion of a connectivity agenda for the region. This commitment emphasized the importance ofCUPIDE’s continuation:

The CUPIDE project as it was conceived and designed in 2001 did not have the benefit of the com-mitment of Regional Governments to a connectivity agenda and a holistic Regional approach to thedelivery of distance education. This change, coupled with the adoption of Internet and web basedtechnologies as the platform for the delivery of distance education, provide the rationale for theCUPIDE project to be revisited with regard to the choices of technologies in delivering on its purposeand to seek the benefits through synergies within the overall umbrella of the CARICOM agenda andin particular the Caribbean Knowledge and Learning Network (CKLN).128

The CUPIDE management team revised and resubmitted the CUPIDE proposal to account foractivities and results already achieved and address the changes in the distance education (DE)landscape for tertiary learning institutions (TLIs) in the Caribbean.

When the project re-started in August 2005, it then moved relatively smoothly to accomplishits objectives.

In early 2008 CKLN had begun to gather speed in its implementation activities, and should beable to benefit from what CUPIDE achieved in the participating universities, and learn from thechallenges that CUPIDE faced and addressed in its lifespan.

7.2 Efficiency in meeting the CUPIDE objectives

7.2.1 Provision of affordable bandwidth

As discussed in the Sylvester consultancy (pp. 16–20), the provision of affordable bandwidth viasatellite and V-SAT receivers through E-Link Americas was originally conceived as a necessity forCUPIDE to accomplish its objectives.

A major challenge to developing on-line and/or blended courses that incorporate internet andweb-based resources in the Caribbean is the exorbitant cost of broadband connectivity to supporton-line and blended course offerings.129 The cost of connectivity in the Caribbean has been an issuesince the advent of the Internet and the Web, and in only a few Caribbean countries has thetelecommunications industry been liberalised, even in 2008. The extremely high cost of bandwidthin some Caribbean countries jeopardises the development of on-line and blended learning thatrelies on use of the Web. CUPIDE was affected negatively when E-Link Americas collapsed.130

One of the major objectives in CUPIDE was to provide the participating institutions with afford-able connectivity which it was led to believe would be available through the negotiated provisionof satellite-based bandwidth. In the initial years of the project, CUPIDE participants depended

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upon the promised link with E-Link Americas, a fledgling company incubated in the InternationalDevelopment Research Centre (IDRC). E-Link Americas’ objective was to provide econom-ical bandwidth to support education, health and governance development initiatives in the Amer-icas.131

By purchasing large amounts of space on a designated satellite at a negotiated price far belowthe cost a single institutional user would pay for bandwidth, E-Link Americas would have beenable to reach the interior areas of Guyana and Suriname, where there is little infrastructure, veryfew roads and no telephone land lines or, in places, even electricity, providing bandwidth at anaffordable cost. However, while E-Link Americas was able to support several health projects inLatin America and Northern Canada with such economical bandwidth, E-Link Americas did notreach the Caribbean; it collapsed because of funding issues in 2005. The demise of E-Link Americaswas a major blow to CUPIDE.

For some time, there appeared to be no credible alternative to E-Link Americas. However, in2007 the UWI negotiated with the satellite provider Intelsat to provide bandwidth to the threeUWI campuses and its centres in non-campus territories at reduced cost.132 Subsequent to thatagreement, the UWI Vice Chancellor had agreed to share this bandwidth with the co-beneficiaryuniversities at no cost to them for one year – from March 2008 to March 2009. This generouscontribution to CUPIDE by UWI was a major boon to the co-beneficiary universities, and will allowthese universities to offer either on-line support for face-to-face courses in a blended modality, orfully on-line distance courses for a year.

The provision of free bandwidth to CUPIDE universities is undoubtedly UWI’s most significantcontribution to the project. Without UWI’s agreement to provide this free bandwidth, it is unlikelythat CUPIDE could have achieved its objective of offering courses on-line or through blendedmodalities at all, as originally, there was no provision in the project for supporting the provisionof bandwidth: it was simply assumed that the universities would be able to afford the very discounted rate for satellite bandwidth which was supposed to be available through E-Link Americas.

However, at the end of this free year of bandwidth, it is unlikely that at least two and probablythree of the co-beneficiary universities, UG, AdeKUS and UniQ, will be able to assume the cost ofthat bandwidth. They will need first to develop their on-line and blended courses, offer them fora year or more to build up their validity, reliability and client base, and then offer them for a feethat can underwrite the cost of the bandwidth that is supporting them. Given the current courseand programme development for on-line and blended offerings in these universities, one year willsimply not be sufficient to develop the number of high quality courses and attract the number ofpaying learners to support the cost of the necessary bandwidth. It will take each of those univer-sities some time to develop a market for its distance programmes so that they could pay for thebandwidth to support a programme of on-line and/or blended courses. Now that CUPIDE is at anend, if the co-beneficiary universities are to be able to build on their development of on-line andblended courses under CUPIDE and continue to expand their offerings of on-line and blended


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learning, they will need to identify a source for the provision of affordable bandwidth for the nextthree to five years.

7.2.2 Potential assistance to CUPIDE co-beneficiary universities through C@RIBNET

In 2006 the CARICOM Heads of Government gave CKLN a mandate to develop and implement aregional broadband network for education and research named C@RIBNET,133 described by theCKLN CEO as “a regional fibre optic network for education and research similar to RedCLARA”(http://www.redclara.net/en/),134

RedCLARA is a multi-country research network that provides generous fibre optic bandwidthto research institutions in some of the Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America and links themwith similar networks elsewhere in the world. It was originally established by the ALICE Project.

The ALICE (America Latina Interconectada Con Europa) project was set up in 2003 to develop theRedCLARA network, which provides IP research network infrastructure within the Latin Americanregion and towards Europe.135

According to the RedCLARA website, the countries currently served by the network are Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Uruguay andVenezuela.

Each country must develop its own national network to connect with the undersea fibre opticcable. Rather than constructing its own undersea cable – an extraordinarily expensive venture -C@RIBNET intends to lease space on exiting cables to link Caribbean countries with each otherand the rest of the world. To support this venture and ensure that countries can, in fact develop anational network, CKLN has negotiated grants from IDB and the EU to initiate the developmentof these national networks. Considerable monies from the EU and the IDB are currently beinginvested in the establishment of [email protected] These grants are necessary to enable countriescurrently having exorbitantly-priced bandwidth and weak IT infrastructure to benefit fromC@RIBNET.

It is to be noted that RedCLARA is a research network while the CARICOM mandate to C@RIBNET is to serve the needs of health, education, and governance for the CSME.137

However, given the geographical challenges in several countries where poor infrastructure andweak IT are the norm, wireless cannot be overlooked as a connectivity alternative. It would be use-ful for CUPIDE universities, in collaboration with UWI that has already established a contract withIntelSat for the provision of wireless connectivity to its centres, to combine their efforts with othertertiary institutions in the Caribbean to seek a reduced rate for connectivity via a satellite provideras a “Plan B,” just in case the C@RIBET connectivity takes longer than anticipated or does notreach fruition.138

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http://www.redclara.net/en



7.2.3 The efficiency of staffing in CUPIDE

In the design of the project, UWI through UWIDEC was identified as the executing agency, andthe Project Director and the Technical and Financial Officers, who were full-time UWIDEC staff,were assigned management responsibilities in CUPIDE. Only the original Project Manager (whowas re-named the Project Operations Manager with the recruitment of the UWIDEC Director) wasrelieved of some of her other duties and allocated time to manage the project. She was also givena half-time Assistant to manage some of the administrative duties in the project. Her time, theAssistant’s time, and the time of the other UWI staff members, were identified as part of the coun-terpart contribution to CUPIDE.

However, the time required to execute the project, the recognition of UWIDEC staff membersas the management team for CUPIDE responsible for elements such as communication with PACmembers, procurement, contracting consultants and all financial transactions, overlooked the“invisible” UWI services provided to support the project by MITS, UWIDEC’s graphic artist andadministrative staff, the Bursar’s office, the Procurement Division and the Legal Department. Inthe final report on CUPIDE, the UWI management team noted that there should have been “. . . abudgetary allocation to UWI as there was for UNESCO to cover the institutional support providedby the Office of Finance and other services of UWI.”139

Indeed, while they were not required to provide full-time service to CUPIDE, the Financial Offi-cer and Technical Officer experienced periods of time during which they had to devote much oftheir working day to the immediate demands of CUPIDE. This focus on CUPIDE meant that theirsubstantive responsibilities were unattended, a situation that placed them under significant pres-sure. The Technical Officer, in particular, still receives queries from the co-beneficiary universitiesconcerning ICT equipment and services.140

. . . [Late in the project] I was told I could hire an assistant to help me, but when I figured how muchtime I would have to put into training an assistant, I decided that it would be better to just continueon by myself. . .141

In designing any future project of this kind, release time (or reduction in workload) for specifiedpersons in the institution managing the project needs to be factored into the budget. An adminis-trative fee (as suggested in the quote above) might not serve this purpose, however, as such feesare not normally used to provide release time for officers in the project.

Certainly, allocating release time to the Operations Manager strengthened CUPIDE’s operationssignificantly. Her prompt response to queries and her dedication to problem-solving to advancethe implementation of CUPIDE objectives were recognised by a number of those interviewed forthis evaluation, both UWI staff and PAC members.


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7.2.4 Efficiency of funds disbursement142

A close examination of expenditure and achievement of objectives reveals that in the final 18 monthsof CUPIDE (including the one-year extension granted by the Japanese government), the imple-mentation of the incomplete CUPIDE objectives was accomplished rapidly, in comparison to theexpenditure since the beginning of the project: the collaborative course development was completed;the strategic planning consultancies that resulted in the development or updating of institutionalstrategic plans for ICT and DE were executed; the holding of public lectures in each country to pub-licise CUPIDE took place; the identification and acquisition of the LMS, and the training of univer-sity staff in the respective universities, the establishment of the Web Portal, the acquisition of V-SATequipment, computers, servers and copiers, and the holding of a regional collaborative consultationto discuss the future of DE in the region all occurred between early 2006 and the end of 2007. Thecompletion of only one activity – the installation of V-SAT antennae and satellite connectivity sys-tems at the co-beneficiary universities – extended into the first quarter of 2008.143

In its initial years (2003–2004), CUPIDE accomplished very few of the major project activities.The UWI management team set up the administrative systems, established the PAC, and com-pleted the two major consultancies that were to provide the information for executing the rest ofthe objectives. Following the submission of those two reports, activity in the project almost halted,and the project was suspended between August 2004 and February 2005. After considering thechanging distance education (DE) landscape in the region, UWI revised and re-submitted the proj-ect proposal in February 2005, and UNESCO and the Japanese government reviewed andapproved the new submission. Activity in the project re-commenced in late April 2005. Althoughinitial discussions which led to the funding of CUPIDE began in 2000, the actual project activityin operational time was three years including a one-year extension.

It was with the arrival of the current Education Programme Manager in the UNESCO Kingstonoffice that implementation activities intensified. It should be noted that the arrangements for theimplementation of CUPIDE were unusual: the funds UNESCO received from the Japanese gov-ernment were handed over to UWI on the basis of a generalised implementation schedule, ratherthan on activities undertaken or scheduled to be undertaken in the subsequent reporting period.Therefore, without having the leverage of controlling the payments to UWI as the executing agency,UNESCO had very little means of encouraging the implementation of activities in the project.

It should also be noted, however, that the UNESCO Kingston office,144 which was responsiblefor oversight of the project implementation, experienced significant turnover in staffing of its 0fficeduring the life of the project. Three Directors managed the office between 2001, when the projectnegotiations began, and the end of 2007, when CUPIDE concluded. The Education Specialist whofinalised the arrangements with the Japanese government and oversaw the initiation of the projectcompleted his contract with UNESCO; the following Education Specialist who took up the postreturned to Paris for health reasons after a short tenure, leaving the post unoccupied for a periodof time145 until the current Education Programme Manager arrived in 2006. The absence of con-

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tinuity in the UNESCO office, coupled with the turnover in the membership of the PAC and theinception of CKLN combined to affect the implementation rate – and consequently, the rate of theproject’s expenditure – negatively. These factors were beyond the control of the project or its man-agement team, although it must be acknowledged that the project seemed to take a long time ini-tially to get organised and begin the activities to address the CUPIDE objectives.

On the signing of the original agreement in January 2003, UWI received US$20,000. It receiveda further disbursement of US$368,884. Therefore, UWI had in its CUPIDE account a total ofUS$388,884 or 41.3% of the total donor funds available to the universities over the life of the proj-ect against which to undertake implementation activities.

The activities as originally scheduled in this first year (two consultancies, establishment of awebsite, the selection of printing and binding equipment, user training in the five universities inuse of the printing and binding equipment, and the establishment of a regional network) did notseem to warrant this large disbursement of donor funds at the outset of the project. The large dis-bursement of funds was even less necessary when the printing and binding equipment acquisitionand training were deferred until the IT consultant had completed his work and the launch of theregional network was postponed.

When the implementation schedule in the initial CUPIDE report (finalised in November 2003)is examined carefully, it is clear that the project had some difficulty in getting started. Much timewas devoted to establishing administrative systems to support the project, initiating the two con-sultancies, and the mounting of the CUPIDE website. These activities, the holding of a PAC meetingand the launch of the project were the major achievements from January, when the project began,to September 2003.

In the second report to UNESCO, the UWI management team reported expenditure totallingUS$99,902.16 (25.7% of the initial disbursement to UWI). Therefore, in the first 15 months of thisthree-year project – one-third of the anticipated project duration, a little more than 10 percent of the budget allocation to the universities (10.6%) had been expended. Even after 17 months ofoperation, CUPIDE had initiated few of its planned activities and managed to spend only 7.2% of the total CUPIDE budget. Shortly after this report, in August 2004, the project activities weresuspended.

A challenge that the project faced initially was the requirement that financial reporting for eachquarter was to be forwarded to UNESCO within one week of the end of the quarter. The UWI Bur-sary was simply unable to compile and process the accounts and return a report for the quarter tothe Project Manager for submission to UNESCO in that very narrow window of time. When theLetter of Agreement was amended, UWI requested that the submission of accounts within oneweek of the end of the quarter be changed to “within one month of the end of the reporting period.”UNESCO agreed to this amendment. However, UWI had difficulty in meeting even this amendedreporting deadline, and the accounts presented for the preceding quarter frequently did not reflectactual expenditure: monies that been expended and the monies remaining in the CUPIDE accountdid not necessarily get reported in a timely manner.


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At the end of July 2005, the first report after the project was re-started, the balance in theCUPIDE bank account was USD$328,683.13 which was 84.5% of the original disbursement in2003 and included significant amounts of interest payments on the monies in the account. Thequarterly report to UNESCO dated June 2005, covering the period from the re-starting of the proj-ect in April 2005, noted that there were some changes to the original Letter of Agreement betweenUNESCO and UWI, not least of which was how the earned interest was to be treated: “UNESCOindicated that interest was now to be treated as part of the principal from the donors.”146 Thisagreement meant that the project was gaining funds rather than expending them in several quar-terly reports. Twelve months before the agreed end of the project, the total expenditure of donorfunds under CUPIDE was 10.6% of the donor contribution allocated to the universities.

Expenditure increased beginning in the January to March 2006 quarter. The written reportfrom the UWI Bursar’s Office documented a marked increase in project activities: the strategicplanning consultancies (except for UniQ) were completed, training was undertaken related to theselected Learning Management System (LMS), and the Web portal had been developed.

The Bursar’s report for the quarter April 1 to June 30, 2006 documents a total expenditure ofUS$87,521.52, an encouraging increase in quarterly expenditure.

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Figure 2: Progression of CUPIDE universities’ level of expenditure

Reflects dynamics of the project implementation cycle


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Figure 3: Breakdown of support provided to university partners

Figure 4:UNESCO/JFIT Financial contributionTotal value of direct costs: US$ 989,758.00. Implementation rate: 99.53%

However, at this point in time the project was scheduled to be completed in December 2006,77.1% of the project’s donor contribution to the universities was still to be spent six months beforethe project’s scheduled completion date.

The UWI Financial Report for July 1 to September 30, 2006 records expenditure in the quartertotalling US$104,260.83. This was the largest expenditure registered in a quarter of the project tothat point in time. The balance in the account was reported to have dropped to US$74,079.63.

The quarter October 1 to December 31, 2006 originally was the last quarter in the project. If theproject had closed at the end of December 2006, reported expenditure in CUPIDE would havetotalled US$517,435.60 or 54.9% of the allocated donor funds, and the major activities set out inCUPIDE’s goal and objectives would not have been accomplished. Fortunately, UNESCO was ableto argue the case with the Japanese government to extend the end date of the project to December31, 2007, based on a marked increase in project implementation during 2006. This extension wasfinalized in November 2006.

The Consultant understands that UNESCO drew contracts with each of the co-beneficiary uni-versities in the last quarter of 2006 for US$20,000 to facilitate the universities’ undertaking train-ing related to CUPIDE objectives that was peculiar to their respective needs. The importance ofthis direct contracting was that UNESCO could assist UWI in meeting its objectives and increasingtraining available under the project with the additional funds identified in the project budget.

The reporting period July 1 to September 30, 2007 recorded income of US$273,000,147 repre-senting the second payment from the Japanese government to the UWI for CUPIDE. The paymentwas received by the Bursar’s Office on September 11, 2007.

The report of expenditure in the final quarter of the project from October 1 to December 31,2007 recorded payments of US$21,598.51. The remaining balance of donor funds from the twopayments made to the UWI was documented as US$120,589.04. However, project monies werereserved for installation of the V-SAT system in four of the CUPIDE universities.

For the co-beneficiary universities, the changes in the administrative systems in the last year ofthe CUPIDE implementation close to the end of the project proved challenging. UNESCO signedtwo discrete contracts with each of the co-beneficiary universities to disburse US$180,000 of thebudget148 directly to each of the co-beneficiaries in order to speed the acquisition of equipment inthe face of the CUPIDE end-of-project deadline.

Just as they had done previously to receive the US$20,000 disbursement, the co-beneficiaryuniversities signed individual activity-financing contracts with UNESCO, identifying the equip-ment they intended to purchase with the US$25,000. The universities identified equipment theydeemed necessary to enhance or complement the CUPIDE objectives and the incorporation ofICTs for distance education in their respective contexts. The signed contract facilitated the directpayment from UNESCO. Each of the four co-beneficiary universities received 60% of their $25,000allocation upon signing the contract for the purchase of equipment, based on the submission ofpro forma invoices. However, not all of the universities understood that they were to order all ofthe equipment for which the $25,000 was to be used at the same time. Two – and possibly three

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– of the co-beneficiary universities waited for UNESCO to send them the balance of the paymentbefore ordering the rest of the equipment.

A few of the universities had difficulty in advancing the remaining 40% from their own funds toinitiate the procurement of the identified equipment. In these cases, UNESCO concluded anamendment to their contracts to increase the advance to 80% of the total value of the equipmentto be procured. UNESCO disbursed the balance to the university when it received the receipts paidfor the ordered equipment.

The balance remaining in the donor contribution at the end of December, 2007 was US$100,000or 10.6% of the original Japanese government contribution to the universities. However, in thefirst quarter of 2008, the UWI took delivery of connectivity and related equipment to allow theprovision of connectivity from Intelsat, the satellite provider UWI is using and share with the co-beneficiary universities.

In the analysis of the UWI Bursar’s reports and the limited accompanying documentation, it isevident that spending increased significantly beginning in the second quarter of 2006. However,without the project extension of one year, CUPIDE could not have accomplished its objectives.Nevertheless, the CUPIDE management team implemented CUPIDE as efficiently as possible,given the bureaucratic procurement and payment processes in UWI and the co-beneficiary uni-versities, and the need to re-think and identify an alternative connectivity provision for the fiveuniversities.

In summary, given the complexity of managing a project being executed by a regional institutionsuch as the UWI, the involvement of a regional entity such as CARICOM, the involvement of fiveuniversities located in a multiplicity of countries,149 the individuals involved in the project atUWI/UWIDEC, CARICOM, the respective co-beneficiary universities and UNESCO have workedcollaboratively to execute CUPIDE as quickly and efficiently as possible since early 2006. Prior tothat time, although UWI tried to advance the project as well as it could, the absence of UNESCOsupport and the confusion about the apparent overlap in objectives between CUPIDE and CKLN,stymied the project. However, CUPIDE has concluded on a high note with the beneficiaries feelingoptimistic about the future of distance education in their respective institutions.150


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. . . the complexity of managing a project being executed by a regional

institution such as the UWI, the involvement of a regional entity such as

CARICOM, the involvement of five universities located in a multiplicity

of countries, the individuals involved in the project at UWI/UWIDEC,

CARICOM, the respective co-beneficiary universities and UNESCO have

worked collaboratively to execute CUPIDE as quickly and efficiently as

possible since early 2006.

8.0 QUALITY OF PROJECT INPUTS

In her interviews with stakeholders, institutional administrators and senior managers, the Con-sultant explored the level of satisfaction these groups felt about the quality of inputs provided totheir institutions by CUPIDE.

8.1 Procurement of consulting services in CUPIDE

8.1.1 The CUPIDE consultant procurement process

The procurement process for identifying consultants in the project was objective and participatory.The Project Manager/Operations Manager formulated the Terms of Reference (TOR) for each con-sultancy, shared these with the PAC for their review, amendment and approval, and published arequest for proposals (RFP). A knowledgeable group of specialists in the area of the consultancyreviewed the submissions and, using a common scoring system, identified the best candidate forthe assignment. The selection committee then forwarded its recommendation to the PAC throughthe Project/Operations Manager.

Although the consultant procurement process was protracted in some cases, the selected con-sultants carried out their TOR satisfactorily and were well regarded by the staff of the universitieswith whom they worked.

. . . [The Moodle consultant] was wonderful! He worked well with the members of staff, was patientand understanding… When he left, he gave everyone his e-mail address, and people still write to himfor advice, which he goes to some lengths to answer. . . He could just have walked away when he hadfinished his training, but he is still involved…151

. . . [The strategic planning consultant] really opened the eyes of senior administration [at this uni-versity] through the questions she asked. I think that for the first time. . . . [a Senior Vice President]realised the complexity of introducing distance education and making a commitment to it with uni-versity resources. . . 152

. . . [The Moodle consultant] was outstanding. He designed a course that enabled everyone to startfrom the same point of knowledge before he started teaching Moodle. He made sure that everyoneprogressed in the training, and had a chance to build confidence in using the platform. . . We woulduse him again for anything related to distance education and curriculum design. . . 53

The Haitian procurement process included an additional criterion for the strategic planningand Moodle training consultancies because of the need to engage staff members directly in theconsultants’ work: the consultant selected was required to speak fluent French. The challenge ofidentifying suitable French-speaking consultants for the UniQ consultancies was compounded bythe fact that for almost two years of CUPIDE, there was an international advisory in place banningtravel to Haiti. The period of the travel ban coincided with two important consultancies: strategic

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planning and Moodle training. Accordingly, in order for UniQ to progress in its development of astrategic plan for distance education, the identified consultant worked from his home universityin Canada without travelling to Haiti.

While this mode of working accomplished the letter of the CUPIDE objective to develop a strate-gic plan for distance education in UniQ, it unfortunately did not address the spirit of the objective.Given the nature of strategic planning, there was a need to engage the managers and implementersin a synergistic experience during the plan’s development; therefore, this long distance system wasless than ideal. However, UniQ does have a document on which they can build to develop theirdistance education aspirations.154

8.1.2 The consultancies executed through CUPIDE

The major consultancies executed in CUPIDE were:

• An IT consultancy to conduct a needs assessment and recommend the hardware, software andsystems the five universities needed to advance distance education in their respective institu-tions.

• A human resource, systems and staff training consultancy to identify what was needed toadvance electronic or blended distance education in the participating universities.

• A consultancy to assist selected universities to develop a useful and relevant strategic plan forICT and distance education that would inform and encourage the growth of distance educationin the respective institutions.

• Training consultancies for university staff (academic, administrative and technical staff) andsome students in the operation and use of the Moodle LMS platform for developing on-linecourses.

• A consultancy for setting up the CUPIDE Web portal.

• A training programme for IS and technical staff in UWI and UTech offered by O’Reilly MediaTraining Limited pursued by distance.

This series of consultancies, executed in the order listed, provided a solid strategy for advancingand supporting the growth of on-line and blended courses in the five participating universities.

The majority of CUPIDE stakeholders who received or participated in the consultancies reportedthat they were satisfied or very satisfied with the quality of the consultancy services contractedunder CUPIDE. Even though UniQ had to delay its consultancies or, in the case of the strategicplanning consultancy, develop the strategic plan with the consultant by distance, the stakeholdersreported that the consultancy services were very useful. UniQ was particularly pleased with theMoodle consultancy. Several stakeholders in the respective universities reported that the consult-ants continued to support them via e-mail even after the consultancy was concluded.

However, one senior manager, said, “I had expected more. . .” from the Moodle consultancy.


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He had thought that the academics’ participation in the Moodle training would enable them totranslate their courses from face-to-face to on-line easily and quickly following the consultancy,and that had not been the case. His opinion, although certainly valid, illustrates that he did notunderstand the complexity of translating existing face-t0-face courses to on-line courses. This wasthe single negative comment the Consultant heard in her interviews and focus groups in the participating universities.

The IT consultancy, which was the very first one executed under the project, perhaps, in hind-sight, focused too much on the systems, hardware and software needed to develop on-line distanceeducation, at the expense of exploring strategies to improve existing systems or other alternativesto offer blended courses. While in the long term on-line and blended courses will develop in Suri-name and Guyana, the more immediate need was for improved, low cost, low technology systemsand solutions to address their very real and immediate challenges. The inability to reach learnerslocated in remote and inaccessible parts of their countries easily – or for learners to accesscourses – is a current challenge both of these countries face.

In response to an e-mail query from the Consultant, one university PAC representative reported,

[My university] cannot afford to develop on-line distance education. . . [It] has only been able todevelop distance education through what CUPIDE has offered us. The university has no budget topay for connectivity, purchase equipment, or train people. When the free connectivity ends, my uni-versity will have to stop offering anything on-line, because we cannot afford the bandwidth.155

Admittedly, at the time that the Consultant executed his contract, he expected – and CUPIDEwas relying on – E-Link Americas to provide satellite connectivity to these remote areas, perhapsexcusing the Consultant’s unwavering commitment to on-line distance solutions to the access chal-lenge of the CUPIDE universities.

The Moodle staff training, which, by its very nature and intent, had to be undertaken in Haiti atUniQ, was deferred until mid-2007 – after the travel advisory for Haiti was lifted. However, giventhe responses of participants and senior management in the university, the long wait was wellworth it. There was an overwhelmingly positive response to the training and the Consultant whofacilitated it.

8.2 Procurement of equipment for the CUPIDE universities156

Except for the US$25,000 which UNESCO gave directly to the four co-beneficiary universities,the procurement of all equipment was managed centrally through UWIDEC’s Operations Managerin Jamaica and the Technical Officer in Trinidad. Since the UWI is an institution funded by thegovernments of the region, procurement procedures necessarily follow government guidelines.Any major purchase requires bids from at least three suppliers. To be eligible to be considered forthe award of a contract in a bidding process, the supplier must be on the government’s list ofapproved suppliers.

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Some equipment ordered was peculiar to a single institution; for example, the binding equip-ment for UWIDEC, and the laptop computers for UTech. However, the computer equipment forfour universities, the servers, the V-SAT antennae and related hardware, and the photocopierswere centrally ordered for distribution to all of the CUPIDE universities. The O’Reilly Media Train-ing programme was also purchased centrally, but for only two universities.

There was a proviso related to the photocopiers ordered, however: the receiving institution hadto ensure that it could obtain a service contract from a local supplier so that preventive mainte-nance and repair could be assured after the end of the project.

Since the UWI had an agreement with Dell for a significant discount on their computers, theproject purchased Dell computers using UWI’s Agreement:

Because UWI has an agreement with Dell [computers], we purchased all of the computers, whetherPCs or laptops, under that terms of UWI’s Agreement. . . That enabled us to get the computers at agood discount. . . [to save the project money].157

The procurement of the “big ticket” items did not begin until 2006. All of the centrally orderedequipment was approved by the PAC prior to purchase.

An examination of the equipment ordered by the co-beneficiary universities under theUS$25,000 direct contract with UNESCO is intriguing, in that there is absolutely no consistencyin the equipment ordered. UniQ was establishing a Centre for Distance Education in the university,and much of the equipment it ordered went directly to that Centre. However, it also ordered a mul-timedia projector to support its face-to-face classes, and a computer and printers for the Account-ing Department. UTech ordered equipment for its Distance Education Centre as well, but theequipment varied from digital cameras and camcorders to a laminating machine, colour copierand surge protectors. UG ordered computers, servers and switches specifically for course devel-opers. AdeKUS ordered 25 computers and associated black and white and colour printers to estab-lish a computer laboratory specifically for distance education. The variation in the perceived needsamong the co-beneficiary universities indicates the differences among those universities – andtheir PAC representatives who placed the equipment orders.


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The majority of CUPIDE stakeholders who received or participated in the

consultancies reported that they were satisfied or very satisfied with

the quality of the consultancy services contracted under CUPIDE. Even

though UniQ had to delay its consultancies or, in the case of the strategic

planning consultancy, develop the strategic plan with the consultant

by distance, the stakeholders reported that the consultancy services

were very useful.

9.0 REVIEW OF THE CUPIDE INCEPTION REPORT: THE EVOLUTION OF THE ORIGINAL PROJECT RESULTS

An examination of the CUPIDE results as envisioned in the February 2003 CUPIDE “InceptionReport” reveals that the original concept of the project evolved significantly during its early imple-mentation, and especially following the IT and HR Consultants’ reports.

UWIDEC originally wanted to strengthen its proprietary synchronous distance education systemthrough provision of support for its paper-based support materials, at the same time assisting UG,which had a more modest paper-based distance programme, before turning to on-line distanceeducation in a second phase of the project. However, by the time CUPIDE actually began in 2003,the distance landscape was changing rapidly both internationally and in the Caribbean, andUWIDEC required assistance to convert from synchronous audio conferencing to asynchronouson-line distance education.158 The other universities needed assistance to develop and implementtheir plans for offering courses and programmes through distance or blended modalities.

In the “Inception Report” for CUPIDE,159 the representatives of the five universities projectedthat CUPIDE would achieve the following results:

1. Detailed implementation plan for purchase and installation of hardware and software2. Report on staffing requirements for each institution.3. Reports on:

(a) Technologies in use in the region for distance education(b) Other initiatives (c) Learning styles(d) Programmes

4. Reproduction and binding capacity at the universities, including equipment and trained personnel

5. Project Web site6. Formation of Association7. Telecommunications network linking five universities8. Technical assistance provided for institutions for the period of one year9. Number of persons in each institution trained in technical, administrative and academic

aspects10. Training manuals11. Programmes developed and offered12. Report on recurrent budgetary support required for technical, administrative, and academic

aspects of the system13. Projection report of prospects for the future14. Evaluation report160

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While most of these results were achieved under CUPIDE, some of the anticipated outcomeschanged or evolved over the course of the project. The outcomes that changed in the implementa-tion of the project are discussed below.

9.1 Detailed implementation plan for purchase and installation of hardware and software

The expectation was that this “detailed plan” would emerge from the IT Consultant’s report. Asthe Consultant reported, the co-beneficiary universities were less developed in terms of their plansfor DE than CUPIDE’s initial design assumed. He found that the universities were at very differentlevels of development of distance education, and, therefore, could not all follow a single imple-mentation plan. Instead, he provided an IT needs assessment for each of the universities to intro-duce or strengthen electronically-enhanced distance education. It was left to the PAC and the UWImanagement team to develop the implementation plan and approve the purchases of hardwareand software under CUPIDE.

9.2 Report on staffing requirements for each institution

Both the IT Consultant and the HR Consultant were expected to provide reports on the universities’staffing requirements. However, to develop an accurate list of staffing requirements, the univer-sities first had to have agreed on a projected plan for developing distance education in their respec-tive institutions. Only UWI was close to having a strategic plan that incorporated distanceeducation (DE) when the two initial consultancies were executed. Both Consultants recognisedthe need for each university to develop a strategic plan for DE and to have funded technical assis-tance available to them to implement that plan. The operational plans based on those strategicplans would have indicated the staffing needs for the development of DE in each university; how-ever, without the plan, it would have been impossible to identify staffing requirements accurately.

9.3 Reproduction and binding capacity at the universities, including equipment and trained personnel

The acquisition of printing and binding equipment was one of the priorities of both UWI and UGin the development phase of CUPIDE, and basically comprised the original Phase 1 of CUPIDE.

The IT Consultant reported that UWI’s provision of copying and binding facilities at each of thedistance locations would have actually been more costly than the retention of its existing systemof central print materials development and distribution to its non-campus locations. Therefore,this objective was amended so that each of the universities obtained a high speed photocopier aspart of the project, but only UWI received binding equipment.161 Training for the operation of thephotocopiers was deemed unnecessary, since the UWI management team believed that the sup-pliers of the equipment would provide the training as a part of the purchase.


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9.4 Training manuals

It is unclear for whom the training manuals were intended, in what these manuals were to providetraining, or who was to develop these manuals. However, while no training manuals were devel-oped under CUPIDE, the Moodle training workshops produced materials for those who partici-pated in them at the various universities, and the O’Reilly Media Training programme, an on-linedistance education programme targeted to technical support staff for on-line distance education,also seemed to have been part of CUPIDE’s response to this objective.

9.5 Report on recurrent budgetary support required for technical, administrative, and academic aspects of the system

Both the IT and HR Consultants attempted to provide budget projections for the systems they rec-ommended. However, given the embryonic development of DE in the co-beneficiary universities,the HR Consultant projected the cost of consulting services to develop the distance modality atthese universities, rather than the projected costs of sustaining a DE modality at the institutions.The IT Consultant’s budget projections,162 while contained in his final report, rapidly became dated,especially when the universities opted for an open source Learning Management System (LMS)and E-Link Americas collapsed. At the conclusion of the project, the UWI management team wasunable to produce an estimate of recurrent budgetary support for technical, administrative andacademic components of the DE system in the respective universities. Given their very differentlevels of development and the very different national ICT landscapes, the absence of the report isunderstandable.

9.6 Projection report of prospects for the future

At the project’s inception, this report may have seemed to be a logical completion report. However,the Final Report from the UWI management team submitted to UNESCO reported the achieve-ments of CUPIDE and asserted:

• Through strategic plans, CUPIDE has provided a framework for the institutions to (further)develop distance education courses or programmes.

• A cadre of trained persons in each institution for the development of distance education courseshas also been provided.

• The provision of equipment and cheaper bandwidth for the offer of on-line courses will alsoenable the sustainability of the distance education offerings.

• The institutions should follow-up on the recommendations arising out of the CARICOM consultation on collaboration in distance education among tertiary level institutions, held inSt. Lucia, November 27–29, 2007.

• The CKLN initiative should build on the achievements of CUPIDE.163

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It is certainly not surprising that the 2001-conceived results of an IT and distance education-focused project would outstrip the originally-anticipated achievements. Both the ICT landscapein the region, the respective countries and the CUPIDE institutions, and the assumptions whichinformed the development of the project with the five universities in 2001 changed significantlyover the life of the project. The mid-project “course correction” which CUPIDE experienced in2005 modified the emphasis of the intended results of CUPIDE as well. And the extent to whichCUPIDE could usefully inform CKLN evolved as the latter initiated its activities as well.

However, in visiting the CUPIDE universities and meeting the stakeholders, the Consultantfound that the project was generally regarded very favourably, both by immediate beneficiariesand stakeholders and members of the senior management in the co-beneficiary universities.CUPIDE was perceived to have made a significant contribution to the development of distanceeducation institutionally, nationally and regionally. In its ability to adjust to changes occurring in the immediate context of the participating universities, CUPIDE remained both relevant andproductive.

10.0 CUPIDE ACHIEVEMENTS

Over the years of its existence, CUPIDE accomplished a number of significant results in the devel-opment of electronically-enhanced distance education at the institutional, national and regionallevels.

10.1 CUPIDE’s contribution to UniQ’s achievements in distance education

CUPIDE made a significant contribution to the development of distance education in UniQ throughits support for the development of a strategic plan for distance education, the provision of computerand printing equipment and staff training. At the end of the project, UniQ had established a Dis-tance Education Centre with the equipment made available through CUPIDE, designed two coursesto offer on-line, was actively developing other courses for on-line offering, and was nationallyrecognised as the leading university in distance education in Haiti. In recognition of UniQ’s leadingrole in distance education initiatives, the Rector of UniQ has been appointed Chair of the country’snational Distance Education Committee. Fifteen members of UniQ’s staff have been trained to useMoodle, the LMS adopted in CUPIDE universities, and they continue to work on convertingcourses for on-line and blended offerings. The public lecture on the potential of distance educationfor Haiti’s development hosted under UniQ’s aegis and mounted as part of CUPIDE gave visibilityto CUPIDE and helped to establish UniQ as a leader in distance education.

However, UniQ was challenged in a variety of ways in the implementation of CUPIDE: first,Haiti’s national language is French, rather than English, the implementation language of the proj-


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ect; secondly, the social upheaval in the country during CUPIDE’s implementation meant thatUniQ could not participate in the strategic planning consultancy in the same way as the other uni-versities, and its Moodle training had to be postponed until Haiti was stabilised. Nevertheless, theuniversity seized the opportunities offered through CUPIDE as a means of initiating its plans forexpanding its offerings across the country. UniQ’s being provided with two distance educationspecialists,164 who are housed in the Rector’s office, strengthened its ability to develop distanceeducation quickly. UniQ anticipates having two blended courses offered by the end of February2008 and two courses on-line by September 2008.

The UniQ Rector has been able to leverage the CUPIDE project to support his plans to contributeto the training of the 20,000 teachers that Haiti needs at present. As a result of UniQ’s participationin CUPIDE and the contributions to UniQ’s infrastructure, the Rector of the university was ableto negotiate with a local private sector ISP to provide a year’s connectivity at no cost for UniQ tobegin a teacher training programme in Gonaïeve, on the other side of Haiti from the university’slocation in Port-au-Prince. The prominence that CUPIDE has afforded UniQ, has enabled it tobuild commitment to and enthusiasm for distance education in the university and private sectorstakeholders, and begin to develop its systems and resources for distance education.

10.2 CUPIDE’s contributions to AdeKUS’s development of electronically-assisted distance education

AdeKUS and its related teacher-training college had the goal of increasing access for more stu-dents – especially trainee teachers – when it joined CUPIDE. The teachers’ college saw distanceeducation as a means of reaching potential learners outside Paramaribo. CUPIDE provided train-ing for staff, and at the time of the Consultant’s visit, 10 persons were translating courses fromface-to-face to blended or on-line offerings, and more were expected to join the process once theyhad mastered the use of the Moodle LMS. Complementary to CUPIDE is EDUSAT, an OAS-fundedsatellite-based distance education network in which AdeKUS is planning to participate. EDUSATwill augment AdeKUS’s access to satellite bandwidth and provide them with additional equipmentand servers. Thus, CUPIDE’s achievements will be complemented and strengthened by EDUSAT.

Even though the government does not yet have a national ICT policy, it has set up a nationaleducational network (the Suriname Educational Network). However, the Consultant discoveredthat connectivity remains a serious challenge at present in the country. AdeKUS can afford onlyone MB of bandwidth to share among staff and students. The speed of the connection was reportedto discourage those using the internet: “In periods of heavy demand, the available bandwidth issometimes as little as one-fifth of a MB. . .”165 Through CUPIDE, however, AdeKUS’s level of knowl-edge about electronically-enhanced distance education has been strengthened through the trainingof its staff members in the use of the Moodle LMS platform for developing166 and offering coursesby distance and the provision of infrastructure for on-line and blended distance education. AdeKUSis eagerly anticipating the provision of a year’s satellite-based connectivity to support its develop-

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ment and offering of on-line and blended courses. The potential of combining the connectivityoffered through EDUSAT and CUPIDE promises improvement in connectivity for education inSuriname.

Like Haiti, Suriname’s first language is not English; therefore, only those who were versed inEnglish could participate fully in CUPIDE.167 Nevertheless, instructors at AdeKUS have respondedvery positively to the idea of putting courses or support for courses on line, and there is obviousenthusiasm for increasing the use of on-line resources and courses.

Also like Haiti, Suriname shares the need to train a large number of untrained classroom teach-ers, and the teachers’ college and the Ministry of Education see on-line or electronically-enhanceddistance education as a genuine possibility to improve the training options:

. . . [There is ] no knowledge or awareness of the potential of distance education for training teachersor supporting education in the interior. . . [G]ive me more colleagues, more confidence, a larger poolof colleagues168 with whom to work. . . [However], moving outside the campus will be difficult. . .[the PAC representative and I] run the risk of being very enthusiastic about a very small initiative.

. . . CUPIDE has proven its value in tertiary education, but the bandwidth has come too late. . .169

10.3 CUPIDE’s contribution to electronically-assisted distance education at UG

UG has operated print-based distance courses through its Institute for Distance and ContinuingEducation (IDCE) for a number of years. Therefore, the obvious clientele within the university forCUPIDE’s resources and infrastructure were in this unit. In the initial design of CUPIDE, UG wasgoing to benefit with UWIDEC from the provision of printing and binding facilities to strengthentheir existing distance education programmes. In the redesigned project, UG was not providedwith binding equipment, and emphasis shifted to the strengthening of electronically-enhanceddistance provision.

In the redesigned project, while UG’s IDCE benefited from both equipment and training throughCUPIDE, it did not receive strategic planning assistance through the project, because CKLN wasscheduled to assist UG in that area.

The training in Moodle was well-received, and has prompted lecturers to translate their coursesto on-line and blended offerings. UG established two computer laboratories in the IT Departmentand reserved one of these labs for lecturers’ use for course development. However, the lecturerswho were developing courses and learning materials expressed frustration at the lack of access tobandwidth to enable them to work on their course development.170

The visibility of CUPIDE sparked a high demand for courses offered by distance; however, avail-able bandwidth poses a severe challenge to converting face-to-face course syllabi and learningmaterials to blended or on-line offerings. The installation of the V-SAT and the provision of band-


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width through CUPIDE will respond to this complaint.171 However, the targeted learners in interiorparts of Guyana may not benefit from the conversion to on-line or blended courses unless V-SATequipment is set up in the UG/IDCE learning centres located in the interior of Guyana. Guyanawith Suriname will also participate in EDUSAT, which will enhance available satellite bandwidthin the interior of the country.

10.4 CUPIDE’s contributions to UTech’s strengthening and development ofelectronically-assisted distance education

UTech had been attempting to develop on-line and electronically-assisted distance education since1999 with little success, because the institution committed little or no budget to the effort, exceptto establish and staff an office dedicated to continuing and distance education. Therefore,CUPIDE’s contribution of equipment, training in course development and strategic planning wereuseful and welcome support to the Office of Continuing Education Open and Distance Learning(OCEODL). The provision of a high speed copier, laptop computers for a mobile training labora-tory, training for academic, technical and administrative staff and strategic planning support allstrengthened and provided credibility for the work of the OCEODL. UTech took full advantage ofthe Moodle training provided through CUPIDE: it managed to expose senior administrators, andadministrative staff to the LMS as well as training Moodle “super users” in each Faculty, who canassist others in use of Moodle. UTech also participated with UWI in the development of the firston-line course mounted on the CUPIDE web portal.

Members of the academic staff have begun to use Moodle to supplement face-to-face classesand have used it successfully in offering a course in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

However, unfortunately, UTech did not benefit from the provision of V-SAT capability as it wassupposed to as a co-beneficiary university under CUPIDE. There apparently was some misunder-standing on the UWI Management Team’s part about whether UTech was to receive the satellitecapability. The reasoning provided to the Consultant – that UTech already had cheap connectivity– actually makes no sense, because satellite capability would expand UTech’s potential reach intoareas poorly served by land line connectivity, and its capacity to reach the Eastern Caribbean whereconnectivity infrastructure is expensive. By the time UTech realised that it had been excluded fromthe V-SAT equipment, UWI said that all the funds had already been spent.

10.5 CUPIDE’s contributions to UWI’s development of electronically-assisteddistance education

Although UWI was the executing agency for CUPIDE, it also benefited strategically from CUPIDE,perhaps even more than other institutions. UWI has recently launched a fourth “virtual” campus,the argument for which was undoubtedly strengthened by UWIDEC’s experience in managingCUPIDE.

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During its management of CUPIDE, UWIDEC benefited from the shift from its original concen-tration on strengthening print-based distance education to enhancing electronically-enhancedcourses and the adoption of Moodle as the LMS. UWIDEC also obtained the printing and bindingequipment for which it originally developed the project proposal to the Japanese in 2001 thatbecame CUPIDE.

10.6 Development of university collaboration through a regional distanceeducation association

While CUPIDE developed, supported and launched CARADOL as one of its initiatives, the regionalorganisation has not been actively sustained since its 2005 launch.

Well-structured national organizations need to precede the successful functioning of a regionalorganization. It is not only universities that will sustain a national distance education organization:all institutions offering courses or programmes by distance modalities can gain from membershipin a national distance education organization. Only Haiti, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago cur-rently have operational national distance education organizations.

11.0 SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

11.1 Accomplishments

Although CUPIDE had a rocky beginning and at some points early in its operation seemed destinedfor closure, in looking back on its history, it accomplished major achievements that have indeedcontributed to “. . . enabling each of the five universities to develop and deliver quality distanceeducation programmes using. . . ICTs and to develop an expandable framework to accommodatea multiplicity of technologies.” It provided the foundation for increased collaboration among thefive universities, and allowed a number of senior staff members in the CUPIDE universities tobecome familiar with project management procedures at a regional level. In addition – and notleast among its contributions – CUPIDE has provided information from its experiences that cancomplement the development of CKLN.

CUPIDE successfully achieved the following results that were part of its original project design:

• established a website, a web address and a web portal

• launched the regional distance education organisation, CARDOL

• provided useful background data about the landscape of distance education and the existingcapacity of the participating universities to develop and offer electronically-enhanced coursesby distance at the inception of the project


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• identified and provided equipment that enabled the participating universities to strengthentheir electronically-enhanced distance education capacities

• identified a common LMS for the use of the CUPIDE universities – and encouraged the adop-tion of Moodle as the LMS in other tertiary education institutions in the region

• assisted the universities who needed them to write strategic plans to integrate distance educa-tion into the structure of the universities

• provided training for academics, administrators and technical staff to enable them to developand support electronically-enhanced and blended courses offered by distance modalities

• developed on-line and blended courses in all of the co-beneficiary universities

• strengthened institutional collaboration in distance education

• engaged CARICOM in monitoring the implementation of the programme through Chairman-ship of the PAC

• strengthened linkages among the universities especially through the joint decision-making andsharing of experiences in the PAC

• provided a strong base to hand over to CKLN, a CARICOM institution supporting the growthof quality distance education in the region.

11.2 Recommendations for future initiatives in support of distance educationin the CUPIDE universities

Despite the accomplishments of the CUPIDE universities in the project, there are still initiativesneeded to sustain the achievements in the project. These initiatives are identified below.

11.2.1 Continued provision of affordable bandwidth

The most significant threat to the implementation of CUPIDE was the collapse of E-Link Americasand the threatened loss of affordable bandwidth for broadcasting the distance and blended coursesdeveloped in the CUPIDE universities. Fortunately, late in the project, UWI agreed to include the CUPIDE universities in its purchase of satellite bandwidth for one year at no cost to the co-beneficiary universities.

However, at the end of the one-year provision of free bandwidth, at least two of the co-benefi-ciary universities and possibly three172 will not be able to assume the payments for the bandwidthon their own. These universities will need more time to develop and test distance products thatthey can offer for a fee that will allow them to underwrite the cost of the satellite bandwidth withoutsubsidy.

It would be useful if a source of funding could be identified to underwrite the cost of bandwidthat the co-beneficiary universities on a reducing basis over three years. In the first year the fundingagency would pay the entire cost of the bandwidth; in the second year, the funding agency would

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pay for 50% of the bandwidth cost, and in the third year, the funding agency would pay 25% of thecost of the bandwidth. Including the initial year of free bandwidth provided by UWI, this schemewould provide a four-year window for the universities to build the capacity to fund the bandwidthon their own.

11.2.2 Continued development of human resources in the co-beneficiary universities to develop and manage distance and blended offerings

Although CUPIDE provided useful training for the staff in the co-beneficiary universities, the poolof trained managers, curriculum developers and instructional designers in the CUPIDE institutionsis still very small. There is need for further training to sustain and advance electronically-enhanceddistance education courses in the respective CUPIDE universities.

11.2.3 Provision of technical assistance to co-beneficiary universities

Except in the case of UniQ, CUPIDE did not provide the amount of technical assistance recom-mended by both the IT and HR consultants in the early stages of the project. It would be useful toprovide that technical assistance to each university to ensure the sustainability of the gains madethrough CUPIDE.

The value of providing such technical assistance is reflected in the gains in planning and advanc-ing distance education that UniQ has managed because of the appointment to the Rector of twodistance education specialists.

11.2.4 Development of collaborative teacher training programmes offered by distance and/or blended learning in the CUPIDE universities

The commonality of programming need which the Consultant identified in all CUPIDE countrieswas the urgent need for increased provision of teacher training. UniQ AdeKUS and UG have allexpressed the need to provide increased access to certifiable pedagogical training and professionaldevelopment for practising teachers in order to provide them with the training they lack. Distanceeducation has the potential to serve the needs of those practising teachers with in-service coursesoffered by distance, allowing them to remain close to home and their work and, at the same time,access the training they so urgently need. Such in-service distance education opportunities mayincrease the willingness of teachers to remain in the classroom in remote areas of Guyana andSuriname.

An interesting opportunity for a “spin-off” project arising out of CUPIDE could be further pro-vision of technical and financial assistance to support in-service teacher training by distance todevelop the urgently-needed teaching force in Haiti, Guyana and Suriname, where there is a dearthof trained teachers in classrooms.173


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11.2.5 Encouragement of private sector partnerships to develop distance andblended courses in CUPIDE universities

Distance modalities provide opportunities for universities to offer programmes that train workingpeople in the workplace. The development of such programmes can assist in sustaining academicprogrammes for on-campus learners and those in remote locations. Assisting CUPIDE universitiesto develop private sector partnerships to strengthen their distance courses is a means of under-writing the costs of distance offerings and serving the needs of businesses that need training pro-grammes for their workforce.

11.2.6 Building of national distance education associations to support andstrengthen CARADOL

Although three countries have national distance education organizations, other countries in theregion do not. To develop and support distance education in the region, it would be useful for everycountry to develop a distance education association. Such national organizations will strengthenthe operation of a regional organization such as the rekindled CARADOL.

12.0 FINAL THOUGHTS

In retrospect, CUPIDE was an important project in a transition period for tertiary education inthe Caribbean. CUPIDE began its operations at a time when the Internet and the Web were comingof age in education, both internationally and in the region, and those in the project were able tocapitalize on these emerging technologies. However, since CUPIDE occurred in “early days” of thedevelopment of electronically-enhanced DE in the Caribbean, there were significant numbers ofpeople in the co-beneficiary universities who had only passing familiarity with on-line learningand electronically assisted DE. This reality meant that many potential participants in CUPIDE atthe institutional level were suspicious of the new technologies as well as being unfamiliar withthem.

When it first began, there was no model of cooperation and collaboration between independentuniversities in the region for CUPIDE to follow. The project required the participating universitiesto cooperate with each other and work together across countries, languages and skills capacities.The UWI, which has regional centres in small island developing states (SIDS), could potentiallysupport the weaker members, although its participation in CUPIDE centred predominantly in thecampus territories of Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago to support CUPIDE’s imple-mentation and progress. The introduction of CUPIDE in an atmosphere where universities (exceptfor the regional UWI) worked on their own without reference to what other tertiary institutionswere doing was of considerable importance. Because of the work done by CUPIDE’s participating

61


universities, the CKLN, which is focused on SIDS, has had a more knowledgeable and skilled targetaudience in the region with which to begin its work.

While the implementation of CUPIDE was not without its challenges and disappointments, atthe end of the day the project was a significant success: as noted by the Technical Officer, partici-pation in the project “nudged” the co-beneficiary universities off the perimeter to follow the roadto developing DE as a routine alternative for increasing student access and addressing nationaldevelopment needs.

The project also took some risks in executing the project, moving away from the traditional syn-chronous teleconferencing as its foundation medium of communication and deciding instead toadopt ICTs as the medium for DE among the CUPIDE universities. While in 2008 this shift in themedia of choice does not seem particularly worth noting, it was, nevertheless, a significant act in2003. Its successes are certainly worthy of note.

The concept of five universities representing three of the four language groups in the Caribbeancollaborating to develop their skills and knowledge in the field of electrically-enhanced distanceeducation was revolutionary at the time CUPIDE began its operations.174 In its design, CUPIDEsignalled its regional focus by having CARICOM chair the project’s management body, and demon-strated that small island states can reach useful decisions that serve both individual and collectiveneeds.

Secondly, the advent of blended and on-line modes of learning accessed through a commonWeb portal shared among the participating universities represented a promise of significantimprovement in access to tertiary education in the Caribbean. Although they are just beginning todevelop this on-line resource, the CUPIDE universities have made a genuine commitment to con-tinuing this virtual progress.

Thirdly, through the development of strategic plans for ICTs and electronically-enhanced dis-tance education in the individual universities, the CUPIDE partners can link their planning andresources for future development. This model of initiating institutional change and developmentwith strategic planning to guide it, and thus incorporating the introduction of ICTs and electron-ically enhanced distance education into the mainstream of university planning has been adoptedby CKLN in its work in other Caribbean states.

Fourthly, the work of the consultants contracted under CUPIDE proved invaluable to the co-beneficiary universities by increasing the human resource capacity of staff members, initiating ateam approach to planning, course development and implementation, and providing sound adviceon what each co-beneficiary university required to continue and sustain its development in theuse of electronically-enhanced distance education.

Finally, through the training components of the project and the equipment and software madeavailable through CUPIDE, the universities can now report that they have skilled human resourcesand modern facilities with which to continue their development of distance education.


62

63

APPENDIX I

CARIBBEAN UNIVERSITIES DISTANCE EDUCATION PROGRAMME(CUPIDE) LESSONS LEARNED

A multi-institution, multi-country project like CUPIDEcomplicates decision-making,maintenance of stakeholder commitment and implementa-tion processes in a developmentproject.

At the outset, there was little orno communication or collabora-tion among participating univer-sities or knowledge about themand what they offered.

The CUPIDE had member insti-tutions from all three languagegroups in the Caribbean. While this linguistic diversityrepresented the Caribbean, itproduced communication challenges in training events and strategic planning.

At the outset, CUPIDE estab-lished a Project Advisory Com-mittee (PAC) comprisingrepresentatives of all partnerinstitutions chaired by CARI-COM to facilitate stakeholderinvolvement in decision-makingprocesses, and keep themapprised of progress in the project.

In addition to the PAC, CUPIDEset up a web portal, e-mailaddress and website, and devel-oped a regional DE organisation,CARADOL.

The project was conducted primarily in English. However,where inclusion of non-English-speaking staff members was preferred or necessary, CUPIDErecruited consultants who spokethe mother tongue of the countryin which the university waslocated.

Regularly scheduled meetings toreview project progress, whetherconducted by teleconference orface-to-face, assist project imple-mentation and clarity amongparticipating institutions. AnAdvisory Committee that regu-larly reviews a project’s progressis undoubtedly useful in anyproject for communication purposes.

The website created an identityfor CUPIDE. After the launch,CARADOL became moribund.There needs to be a foundation ofnational DE organisations tofacilitate and support the effec-tive operation of a regionalorganisation.

Some development initiatives arebest conducted in the mothertongue of the participants (e.g.training events, planning events).

CHALLENGE SOLUTION LESSONS LEARNED

Appendix 1 continues

APPENDIX I

64


APPENDIX I CUPIDE PROGRAMME – LESSONS LEARNED (cont’d)

While UWI and UG had longexperience with print-based DE,and UWI had used synchronousteleconferencing for many years,initially none of the participatinguniversities was well-versed inusing on-line courseware orblended modalities for DE.

The drafting of on-line coursesfor use in all of the universitieswas a challenge: no participatinguniversity had a course devel-oped that could readily serve as amodel to the other institutions;PAC members had no well-trained staff to undertake thecourse development early in theproject.

At the outset CUPIDE recruitedspecialist consultants to analyseboth the technical and humanresource challenges the universi-ties faced in introducing elec-tronically-enhanced DE. Theirreports informed the CUPIDEimplementation. These consul-tancies were supplemented byothers in• Strategic planning for DE• Academic staff training in

writing courses for an on-lineplatform

• IS staff training in providingtechnical support for electroni-cally-enhanced DE (offered online)

UWI and UTech agreed to collab-orate to develop a course.Although the course develop-ment was protracted, theyfinally developed a four-moduleon-line course and placed it onthe CUPIDE Portal for use by allCUPIDE universities in mid2006.

A university’s transition fromface-to-face instruction to DEmodalities requires careful analy-sis of the infrastructural, policy,financial and human resourceneeds guided by specialists tosupport it. All of these elementsare equally important for successin introducing electronically-enhanced or blended DE.

Collaborative DE course develop-ment is challenging for peopleused to working as individuals incurriculum design. Course devel-opment needs a set timeline forcompletion; otherwise, peoplehave no incentive to complete thetask. It must also operate in atransparent intellectual propertypolicy. Any kind of payment forcourse development needs a policy framework.


65

APPENDIX I



Interactive on-line coursesdemand the availability of highspeed bandwidth both in theoffering institution and at thelearner’s site. Connectivity isvery expensive in three of the co-beneficiary universities’ coun-tries. Provision of bandwidthaffordable to the CUPIDE univer-sities which they could use tooffer on-line courses after theanticipated E-Link Americas collapsed.

Frequent staff changes impededthe implementation ofCUPIDE’s planned activities.

UWI agreed to offer free band-width for a year March 2008–09.However, co-beneficiary univer-sities need affordable bandwidthfor at least three years to build upthe quality of courses. When thecourses are of sufficient quality,they will be able to generatefunds to cover the cost of bandwidth.

Careful documentation of projectactivities and decisions madeavailable to newcomers to theproject can address the chal-lenges of staff turnover.

The development of on-linecourses must be supported tech-nically by affordable bandwidthto facilitate improved access ofan institution’s courses, andadministratively with robust support for learners technical,academic and administrativeneeds for on-line (or any) DE to succeed.A face-to-face course can incor-porate some on-line elements toassist both instructors and learn-ers to become familiar with elec-tronically-enhanced instruction.On-line courses can evolve fromblended courses gradually.

Staff turnover is frequent indeveloping country institutions.There needs to be a written “his-tory” of the project for incomingstaff and/or access to projectmaterials to enable them to makea contribution to the project.


APPENDIX I

66



Finding a convenient time foroffering training to universitystaff members – whether aca-demic or administrative – ischallenging. University schedul-ing is usually very tight, and staffare unlikely to agree to trainingin their vacation periods.CUPIDE trainers reported thatlearners would come to first dayof multi-day events, but learnernumbers decreased as the train-ing progressed.

To share the relevant informa-tion in consultants’ reports withthose who can benefit from them.

Familiarizing academic staff with the on-line learning experience is challenging.

Ensure that training is relevantand participatory. Limit “lecture”training. Design training to meetexpressed needs of learners.

Develop short summaries of themost pertinent information inthe reports and promote recom-mendations with those who canapply them.

Devise a way to engage instruc-tors with the on-line learningexperience. The modules developed in the collaborativeUWI/UTech on-line courseaddress the on-line learningexperience.

Schedule training events at timethat the majority of prospectivelearners agree they can attend –and on successive morningsrather than successive day-longperiods.

Participatory training events that address learners’ expressedneeds are more useful that “packaged” learning that pre-sumes what instructors need to know.

Instructors and managers in tertiary institutions are very busyand have to make choices aboutthe use of their time. Limitingthe amount of material circu-lated, or developing short sum-maries of the most importantinformation is the most usefulway of sharing consultants’ findings.

The first learner experience withon-line learning is complex: the learner is trying to mastertechnology simultaneously withthe content treated by the technology.


67

APPENDIX I



Operating in a project modalitymeant that instructors did notsee activity in the project as partof their routine responsibilities.Those involved received neitherrecognition in their institutionnor reduced workloads nor pay-ment for developing courses.

Initially there was administrativestaff assigned to support theOperations Manager, but thiswas the only recognition of theadditional workload placed onkey project team members whoalso had full-time job responsi-bilities in the EA. This additionalburden either slowed implemen-tation activity or put an unsus-tainable load on the teammembers.

Recognition of and publicity forcourse development in the proj-ect, in the local press and in theinstitution’s allocation of teach-ing assignments or other duties.

Employ a preliminary task analy-sis to determine the level of workrequired by key project personneland allocate project funds to hiresupport staff for the project staffmember at key points in the proj-ect implementation.

Even where there is no monetarybenefit or workload relief for par-ticipating in a project, recogni-tion can assist in encouragingactive participation in the projectactivities.

A task analysis needs to be partof the project developmentprocess so that sufficient fundsare allocated to hire part-timesupport staff at points in theproject where implementationactivities require that a staffmember concentrate on projectactivities rather than his/hersubstantive post.


APPENDIX I

68


Giving the project visibility bothoutside and within the institutionis challenging. Except for the“early adopters, who are alreadyenthusiastic about blended andon-line DE, as with anything elsethat is new to them, people aredubious about the value of par-ticipating in something withwhich they are unfamiliar.Engagement with staff membersand obtaining their support forsomething totally new to them isa significant challenge – espe-cially if they are not “tech savvy”.

External support: CUPIDE PACmembers organised nationalmedia events to correspond witha project-related event, e.g. thelaunch of CARADOL, the holdingof a national DE event.

Internal support: Recruit thosewho are already positively-inclined toward DE to beinvolved in the development of early blended and on-linecourseware initiatives.

CUPIDE PAC members organ-ised training specifically targetedto newcomers to electronically-enhanced learning. TheCUPIDE-supported UWI-UTechon-line course was developed forthose unfamiliar with on-linelearning to encourage them infeeling at ease with on-line learning opportunities.

Publicity for a project can gener-ate “good will” and support forthe project from institutionalmanagers when it is needed.

A survey identifying staff mem-bers’ level of knowledge and skillwith mediated learning must pre-cede the design of a campaign topublicize a project that needsstaff engagement for success.

Experiential learning opportuni-ties for newcomers to DE,whether blended, paper-based oron-line, will assist staff membersin becoming comfortable withthese modalities for learning, andencourage them to try somethingfor themselves, once their effortsare supported technically andacademically.


1. Project documents

____ “Human Resource Development in Electronically Enhanced Teaching, Administrationand Material Distribution,” September 2001.

Marrett, C. “CUPIDE Inception Report (Revised),” February 2003.

CUPIDE Management Team. “Revision of the Caribbean Universities Project for Integrated Distance Education,” February, 2005.

Marrett, C. “Evaluation of the CUPIDE pilot course development process,” March 2007.

2. Consultant Reports

Almakary, A. “Final Report on E-Learning Training at Université Quisqueya,” 2007.

Gedeon, J. “Final Report: Moodle-Mediated Online Course Development, Administration, &Student Orientation,” October 2006.

Gregory, V. “Final Report Technical Assistance for Anton de Kom University of Suriname,”August 2007.

Nicholas, R. “Report on the Distance Learning and Online Education Programmes and HumanResource Development Requirements for Participating CUPIDE Institutions,” April, 2004.

Sylvester, K. “Final Report: Assessment of institutional capacity and state of ICT infrastructureat each participating university with recommendations of an integrated network for connect-ing the five participating universities and management framework, skills, competencies andbudget to implement and sustain network infrastructure for the delivery of Distance Educa-tion and collaboration,” January 2004.

van der Hijden P. “Final Report: Training Consultancy - Guyana and Suriname,” October, 2006.

3. Minutes of Project Advisory Committee

Minutes, Project Advisory Committee (PAC) teleconference Meeting, March 14, 2003

Minutes of Project Advisory Committee (PAC) Meeting, held by teleconference, August 5, 2003

69

APPENDIX II

LIST OF DOCUMENTS CONSULTED

Minutes, Project Advisory Committee (PAC) Meeting, Jamaica, January 2004.

Minutes, Project Advisory Committee (PAC) Meeting, Kingston, Jamaica, May 25, 2005

Minutes, Project Advisory Committee (PAC) teleconference Meeting Minutes, November 2,2005

Minutes of Project Advisory Committee (PAC) teleconference Meeting, February 28, 2006

Minutes of Project Advisory Committee (PAC) Meeting, Paramaribo, Suriname, June 20, 2006

Minutes of Project Advisory Committee (PAC) Meeting, Minutes of Project teleconference, September 19, 2006

Minutes, Project Advisory Committee (PAC) Meeting, Ocho Rios, October 30, 2006

Minutes of Project Advisory Committee (PAC) teleconference Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Minutes of Project Advisory Committee (PAC) Meeting, UWIDEC, Mona, June 16, 2007

Minutes of Project Advisory Committee (PAC) Meeting, St. Lucia, November 26, 2007, at theBay Gardens Hotel, St. Lucia

C. Marrett, “CUPIDE Project Summary & Highlights,” St. Lucia, November 2007

4. CUPIDE Status Reports to UNESCO

CUPIDE Progress Report, October 2003–March 2004

CUPIDE Status Report, April–June, 2005

CUPIDE Progress Report, July–September 2005

CUPIDE Progress Report, October–December 2005

CUPIDE Progress Report, January–March, 2006

CUPIDE Progress Report, April–June, 2006

CUPIDE Progress Report, July–September, 2006

CUPIDE Status Report, October–December, 2006.

CUPIDE Progress Report, January–March, 2007

CUPIDE Progress Report, April–June 2007

CUPIDE Progress Report, July–October 2007

CUPIDE Final Report, January 2008

APPENDIX II

70

APPENDIX II LIST OF DOCUMNETS CONSULTED (cont’d)

5. CARICOM Consultation on Collaboration in Distance Education, presentations and report

Barclay, G. “Collaboration for the Caribbean Region: The Health Workforce,” power point presentation, St. Lucia, November 2007.

Bartley, J. “Defining Collaboration in Distance Education in the Caribbean: A Way Forward: The CUPIDE Experience,” power point presentation, St. Lucia, November 2007.

Bates, T. “Models of Collaboration: International Experiences,” power point presentation, St. Lucia, November 2007.

Calixte, E. “Impact of CUPIDE on Université Quisqueya,” St. Lucia, November 2007.

_____. “CARICOM Consultation on Regional Collaboration in Distance Education,” January 2008.

Chen, T. “ICTs in Collaboration,” power point presentation, St. Lucia, November 2007.

Edwards, C. “Caribbean University Level Programme (CULP),” power point presentation, St. Lucia, November 2007.

George, N. “Caribbean Tertiary Level Institutions: Establishing Quality Assurance in DistanceEducation,” power point presentation, power point presentation, St. Lucia, November 2007.

Hinds, H. “Lessons in collaboration: Focus on the Caribbean from the Development Agencies’Perspective,” power point presentation, St. Lucia, November 2007.

Kitson-Piggott, W. “The SMLS Distance and Continuing Education Initiative,” power point presentation, St. Lucia, November 2007.

71

APPENDIX II

APPENDIX II LIST OF DOCUMNETS CONSULTED (cont’d)

1.0 Introduction

As part of its collaborative agreement with The Commonwealth of Learning (COL), UNESCO hascommissioned COL to undertake the summative evaluation of the Caribbean Universities’ Inte-grated Project for Distance Education (CUPIDE). This evaluation is to be conducted betweenDecember 2007 and mid-February 2008.

2.0 Evaluation design and timetable

The evaluation will be undertaken by a single consultant, Dr Nancy George, who lives and worksin Jamaica. The evaluation will consist of desk research, visits to each of the universities for face-to-face interviews with the key stakeholders, consultations with the UNESCO Representative inKingston and electronic communication for follow-up data gathering after the interviews and withthose key stakeholders who are unavailable for interviews during the consultant’s travel in thecountries involved in CUPIDE.

A previously-circulated list of open-ended questions will be used for the interviews with keystakeholders in each participating university; separate open-ended questionnaires addressing theirspecific project responsibilities will be used to interview the main UWI stakeholders – the ProjectDirector, the Project Manager, the Technology Manager and the Project Accountant, the UNESCOEducation Specialist and the CARICOM Representative. As the interviews progress supplementaryinformation may be sought from previously-interviewed stakeholders via electronic mail.

The components of the consultancy are as follows:

December 5–23, 2007 Review of evaluation requirements; collection of reports; deskresearch; drafting of stakeholder questionnaire; initial interviewswith the UWI Project Manager and the lead CUPIDE stakeholder atUTech; organising of travel to Haiti, Suriname, Guyana, Trinidadand Barbados; drafting of supplementary questionnaires forCUPIDE Managers

December 21, 2007 Submission of evaluation design to COL Headquarters and UNESCOCaribbean Cluster Office

72

APPENDIX III

THE CARIBBEAN UNIVERSITIES PROJECT FOR INTEGRATED DISTANCE EDUCATION (CUPIDE) – EVALUATION DESIGN

January 6–18, 2008 Travel to Haiti, Suriname, Trinidad, Guyana and Barbados to meetwith key stakeholders for face-to-face interviews

January 19, 2008 Interview with UNESCO Education Specialist face to face or via e-mail to discuss progress of evaluation

January 21, 2008 Submission of draft evaluation report to COL for relay to UNESCOCaribbean Cluster Office

Jan. 21–Feb. 14 2008 Interview with UNESCO Education Specialist on draft evaluationreport; follow-up interviews with CUPIDE Project Manager; elec-tronic communication with other key stakeholders including CARI-COM to provide additional information or clarify issues that arise

February 15, 2008 Submission of itemized financial statement and final draft ofevaluation

March 15, 2008 Submission of final evaluation report to UNESCO

73

APPENDIX III

APPENDIX III THE CUPIDE – EVALUATION DESIGN (cont’d)

December 14, 2007 – Meeting with Dr. Christine Marrett, CUPIDE Operations ManagerUWIDEC, UWI Mona Campus, Kingston, Jamaica

December 18, 2007 – Meeting with Dr. Jeanette BartleyPAC Representative and Associate Vice President Continuing Education, Open & Distance Learning, University of Technology, Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica

January 4, 2008 – Meeting with Mr. Paolo Fontani, UNESCO Education Specialist, Kingston,Jamaica, Ex-officio PAC Member CUPIDE

January 7, 2008 – Interviews at Quisqueya University, Port-au-Prince, HaitiInterview with Mr. Paolo Chilosi,Director & CEO MultiLink, Port-au-Prince, HaitiInterview with Edgard Previlion, former VP Academic Affairs, UNIQ & PAC Representative

January 9, 2008 – Interview with Mr. Tommy Chen, Technical Officer for UWIDEC andCUPIDE, UWI St. Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago

January 10, 2008 – Interview with Ms. Reina Revales, Chawila Consulting, Paramaribo, Surname

January 11, 2008 – Interviews at Anton de Kom University of Suriname and Teachers’ College/MOE

January 13, 2008 – Interview with Mrs. Savitri Balbahadur, Project Manager Guyana BasicEducation for Teachers (GBET) Project

January 14, 2008 – Interviews at University of Guyana, CARICOM and Guyana Ministry ofEducation (NCERD)

January 16, 2008 – Interview with Anil Chatergoon, Financial Officer CUPIDE and UWIDEC

UWI Cave Hill

January 17, 2008 – Interview with Prof. Stewart Marshall, CUPIDE Project Manager andDirector UWIDEC UWI Cave Hill

May 29, 2008 – Interview with Mr. Ken Sylvester, CEO Caribbean K knowledge and LearningNetwork (CKLN)

74

APPENDIX IV

EVALUATION OF THE CARIBBEAN UNIVERSITIES PROJECT FORINTEGRATED DISTANCE EDUCATION (CUPIDE) –CONSULTANT’S INTERVIEW SCHEDULE

75

APPENDIX V

RESOURCES ACQUIRED THROUGH CUPIDE

Equipment/Software Date Ordered Dated acquired Current Use Planned Use

76

APPENDIX VI

EQUIPMENT ACQUIRED THROUGH UWI/CUPIDE PROCUREMENT

Appendix VI continues

AdeKUS UniQ UTech177 UG UWI (specify site,eg: Mona, Belize)

Number of Computers/type

(lap top, desktop)

Number ofServers/type

Number Photocopiers

10Dell OptiPlex

GX620 Ultra SmallForm Factor PCs

(with E176FP, 17”Flat Panel Monitorand USB Keyboard)

1Dell PowerEdge2800 Windows

Server 2003 R2 SEwith no monitor

1Canon iR-2230

Networked OfficeSystem

10Dell

OptiPlex GX620Ultra Small Form

Factor PCs(with E176FP, 17”

Flat Panel Monitorand USB Keyboard)



1Canon IR-3530Multi-functional

Copier

10Dell Inspiron

630M, Intel Pen-tium M Processor740 Laptops with

14.1 Inch wide-screen WXGA

display)

1Dell PowerEdge 2800 Windows


1Konica Minolta

bizhub 350 Imag-ing System

10Dell

OptiPlex GX620Ultra Small Form

Factor PCs(with E176FP, 17”

Flat Panel Monitorand USB Keyboard)



1 Image Runner

3530

3 – Dell OptiPlexGX620 Ultra Small

Form Factor PCswith E176FP, 17”

Flat Panel Monitorand USB Keyboard

(Cave Hill)

7 – Dell OptiPlexGX620 Ultra Small

Form Factor PCswith E176FP, 17”

Flat Panel Monitorand USB Keyboard

(Mona)

1Dell PowerEdge2800 Red Hat

Enterprise LinuxES 4 with no moni-tor (St. Augustine)

1 – Konica Minoltabizhub 350 Imag-

ing System(Brown’s Town)1 – Konica Minoltabizhub 350 Imag-

ing System (Denbigh)

1 – Konica Minoltabizhub 350 Imag-ingSystem (Port

Antonio)1 – Konica Minoltabizhub 350 Imag-

ing System (Ocho Rios)

77

APPENDIX VI

APPENDIX VI EQUIPMENT ACQUIRED THROUGH UWI/CUPIDE PROCUREMENT (cont’d)

Appendix VI continues


Number of Bind-ing Machines

Number ofTerminals

–

VSAT Antenna andelectronics to be

shipped-:1 – Radio: 10 W C-Band Package (AC)1 – Power Supplyfor 10 WC-Band

Radio1 – 2.4 m C-BandAntenna Circular

Pole (Andrew)1 – Andrew-Non

penetrating Mount2.4 m

1 – iNFINITYSatellite Router

Indoor Unit 5300.18/8.4 Mbps, 8

Ports 1– C-Band LNB

Model 8220F C+/-250 Hz

–


shipped-:1 – Radio: 10 W C-Band Package (AC)1 – Power Supplyfor 10 WC-Band




1– iNFINITY Satel-lite Router IndoorUnit 5300. 18/8.4

Mbps, 8 Ports 1– C- Band LNB


1– IFL Cable Kit;250’ Non-plenum

RG-6

–

–

–


shipped-:1 – Radio: 10 WC-Band Package (AC)1 – Power Supplyfor 10 WC-Band




1– iNFINITY Satel-lite Router IndoorUnit 5300. 18/8.4

Mbps, 8 Ports 1– C-Band LNB


1– IFL Cable Kit;250’ Non-plenum

RG-6

1 – Unibind XU338Steel Binder (Cave Hill)

1 – Unibind XU338Steel Binder

(Mona)1 – PBS Business

Punch Binder(Brown’s Town)1 – PBS Business

Punch Binder(Denbigh)

1 – PBS BusinessPunch Binder (Port Antonio)1 – PBS Business

Punch Binder(Ocho Rios)

VSAT for Belize -:Description-:

Iconnect Plus C-Band System 1– Modem1 – 1.8M Dish1 – 5 Watt BUC

(block up Converter)1 – Low NoiseBlock (LNB)

Status – Items areshipping to Belize(they are currentlyarranging for therelevant import

and VSATLicences).

APPENDIX VI

78

APPENDIX VI EQUIPMENT ACQUIRED THROUGH UWI/CUPIDE PROCUREMENT (cont’d)


Number ofTerminals (cont’d)

1 – IFL Cable Kit;250’ Non-plenum

RG-6 1 – Wave Guide

3 Ft

1 – Wave Guide 3 Ft

– 1 – Wave Guide 3 Ft

VSAT electronics tobe shipped to Cave

Hill, Mona and St. Augustine-:

1 – Radio: Model 5WC-Band Standard

(NJ5669F). BUConly (excludes LNBor Cable). Includes

a Universal BUCMount for attach-ment to antenna1 – C- Band LNB

Model 8220F. C+/-250 Hz


Indoor Unit5300.18/8.4 MBps,

8 ports1 – IFL Cable kit;250’ Non-plenum

RG-6


shipped to Belize-:

1 – Radio: 10 WC-Band Package (AC)1 – Power Supplyfor 10 WC-Band





Indoor Unit 5300.18/8.4 Mbps, 8

Ports 1 – C- Band LNB


1 – IFL Cable Kit ;250’ Non-plenum

RG-61 – Wave Guide

3 Ft

79

APPENDIX VI

APPENDIX VI EQUIPMENT ACQUIRED IN CO-BENEFICIARY UNIVERSITIESTHROUGH UNESCO DIRECT US$25,000 ALLOCATION178

AdeKUS UniQ UTech UG

25 PCs with 17” LCD Monitors

1 Laptop Computer 1 Colour Photocopier 4 Servers

1 Laptop Computer 4 PCs 1 Heavy Duty Shredder4 PCs with Flat Panel Monitors

1 Inkjet Printer +2 Sets Ink Cartridges

1 Scanner 1 Heavy Duty Trimmer 2 Cisco 24-port Switches

1 Laserjet B &W Printer +Toner

1 LCD Projector 1 Laminating Machine

1 Laserjet Colour Printer + 4 Toner Cartridges

Photocopier3 Digital Cameras, Batteries & Charger

30 UPS Units 2 Printers 3 Camcorders

10 Dell PCs 2 External Hard Drives 1 DVD Writer

1 Dell Server 5 Jump Drives 3 Tripods

1 Canon iR 2230 Copier 2 Laser Pointer 2 Multimedia Projectors

1 Wireless Presenter withWireless Pointer

OCR Scanner

1 Epson Powerlite S5 Projector

3 Surge Protectors

1 Octoma EP 719 Projector

1 Wireless G Router

3 Wireless Cards

Equipment for Internetconnection (72% fromassistance funds

2 HP printers (1 Laser + 1 Desk Jet

2 Scanners

2 Tripod Screens

1 Project proposal, “Human Resource Development in Electronically Enhanced Teaching, Adminis-tration and Material Distribution” for submission to the Japanese Funds-in-Trust for Capacity-building of Human Resources, p. 1.

2 CKLN management took no active or formal part in the implementation and/or decision-makinginvolved in CUPIDE except for the provision of a limited amount of funding for the St. Lucia con-sultation. However, the CKLN CEO was the IT Consultant for CUPIDE before his appointment asCEO of CKLN. Any reference to the usefulness of CUPIDE to CKLN is attributable to the evaluatorand/or CUPIDE interviewees alone. Although CKLN management was not interviewed as part ofthis evaluation, the Consultant met with the CKLN CEO to review the CUPIDE evaluation from hisperspective on May 28, 2008. Any statements that CKLN can learn or benefit from the CUPIDEproject should not be interpreted as CKLN’s agreement that the CUPIDE project is instructive to it.

3 The CKLN CEO, in discussion with the Consultant on May 28, 2008, reported that CKLN is cur-rently exploring the potential use of the CUPIDE portal to determine the extent to which it can beadapted to meet CKLN’s portal requirements.

4 The Consultation was scheduled to take place immediately following the final meeting of theCUPIDE PAC.

5 The CKLN CEO and members of the CKLN management team participated in this Consultation.6 The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) supported the participation of a specialist in collaboration

models in tertiary education that are useful in distance education.7 In July 2007, the CARICOM Heads of Government meeting in St. Kitts & Nevis mandated that

CKLN be established as a regional institution and asked the CARICOM Secretariat to develop theMOU establishing CKLN as a regional agency. The document responding to this mandate is still indraft form, according to the CKLN CEO.

8 Such an information and skills transfer is not only possible through the CKLN, but also throughprojects like the OAS-funded EDUSAT project.

9 The CUPIDE acronym was adopted early in the life of the project for ease of reference, since partici-pants felt that the original name was difficult to convert to an acronym; “CUPIDE” has remainedthe operational reference for the project.

10 Terms of Reference, p. 2.11 Ibid., p. 3.12 Ibid., p. 3.13 The list of documents consulted appears in Appendix 11.14 The PAC served as the internal monitoring instrument for the CUPIDE project. At each meeting

the members reviewed the project’s progress, achievements and challenges in each of the co-benefi-ciary universities.

81

NOTES

15 All three campuses, in the case of UWI.16 The list of interviewees is contained in Appendix 1v.17 See Appendix v.18 The project proposal was discussed with UWIDEC in 2000 and the proposal was first submitted in

2001.19 The final activity/expenditure date was extended to March 31, 2008.20 Originally she was the Project Manager in the absence of an appointed Director of the UWI.

Distance Education Centres. When the Director was appointed, she became the Project OperationsManager, responsible for the day-to-day management of the project at a macro level.

21 Interview, January 9, 2008.22 Interview, January 16, 2008.23 Interview, January 11, 2008.24 Inception Report, February 2003.25 CUPIDE Project Proposal (resubmitted), February 2005, p. 1.26 Interview with Prof. Stewart Marshall, January 17, 2008.27 Figure 1 following shows the CUPIDE management structure.28 Significantly more frequently than was envisioned initially.29 The UTech PAC Representative changed four times between 2001 and 2004. 30 After the re-starting of the project in 2005, there were fewer changes in PAC membership.31 Interview with PAC Chairman, January 14, 2008.32 The UNESCO representative is an ex-officio member of the PAC.33 If the PAC were advisory in its responsibilities, one meeting per year would perhaps have been suf-

ficient. However, given its managerial and monitoring responsibilities, the meetings had to be heldmore frequently.

34 The total of the funds provided to the participating universities was US$989,758. The balance ofthe donor contribution (15.8% of the total) was for UNESCO’s administration, project management,missions to visit the project and evaluation. Thirteen per cent of the administration fee is the cus-tomary UNESCO overhead fee agreed between the IFI and UNESCO Head Office; the remaining2.8% of the administration fee was for the Kingston UNESCO office to manage the project.

35 The original project concept envisioned UWI’s use of its audio conferencing facilities as the founda-tion of the communications infrastructure for CUPIDE. However, in the project’s evolution, communications shifted to e-mail.

36 Project proposal, “Human Resource Development in Electronically Enhanced Teaching, Adminis-tration and Material Distribution” for submission to the Japanese Funds-in-Trust for Capacity-building of Human Resources, p. 1.

37 Italics added to identify the change in the development objective. In the original 2001 project document, the framework development was identified as a separate immediate objective ratherthan being included as part of the development objective.

38 The Consultant has applied this interpretation of the objective in her evaluation.39 Although UTech had already installed a campus area fibre optic network, which the Planning and

Development Division envisioned as facilitating on-line distance education. 40 The project eventually expected to offer the curriculum in a total of six Eastern Caribbean states.41 The support materials were primarily self-instructional and print-based; however, there were some

audio and videotape resources as well.

NOTES

82

42 As they appear in both the original and resubmitted project documents and in the TOR for the evaluation.

43 The project proposal speaks of “immediate” rather than “specific” objectives.44 CUPIDE Project Proposal (revised) February 2005, p. 3.45 The apparent focus of CUPIDE was on infrastructure and human resource development; therefore,

the question of quality of the courses developed seems to have been overlooked or assumed. Eachuniversity seems to have been left the responsibility to develop or have in place a quality assurancesystem to ensure that the courses developed and offered were consistent with their respective andinternational academic standards.

46 Although the CUPIDE activities were originally scheduled for implementation in two phases, in thefirst report to UNESCO, this phasing, which was primarily to schedule disbursement of projectfunds, was abandoned.

47 The UWIDEC input contributed to the university’s in-kind contribution to the project and assistedin establishing the credibility of CUPIDE.

48 The network was seen as one initiative to “develop/strengthen linkages among beneficiary universi-ties,” a specific objective of CUPIDE.

49 Interview with Dr. Morella Joseph, January 14, 2008.50 However, a regional organisation needs a very strong underpinning of national organisations to

succeed, as there is unlikely to be a robust support system at the national level without them. Theimpetus for the development of this regional organisation seems to have been an idea that emergedfrom a UWI-hosted conference on Distance Education in Small States, held in 2000.

51 Undoubtedly, the death of the President of CARADOL, who had been instrumental in the develop-ment of its constitution and its establishment, was also a contributing factor in the organisation’sdecline.

52 Or possibly three associations. There may have been a Haitian national distance education associa-tion at the time that CARADOL was established.

53 K. Sylvester, “Final Report On Assessment of Institutional Capacity and State of ICT Infrastructureat each Participating University With Recommendations of an Integrated Network for connectingthe five Participating Universities And Management Framework, Skills, Competencies and Budgetto Implement and Sustain Network Infrastructure For The Delivery of Distance Education and Col-laboration”, unpub. Jan. 2004, p. 13.

54 Ibid., p. 13.55 Fortunately, Mr. Nicholas addressed the findings of the Sylvester Report in addressing his TOR and

writing his report.56 Ibid., p. 10. 57 The PAC decided that using a single open source LMS made more sense than letting each institu-

tion select its own platform. Therefore, the Sylvester Report recommendation was not adopted assubmitted.

58 E-mail correspondence from the IT Director, Mona Information Technology Service (MITS), UWI,January 29, 2008

59 Two universities – UWI and UTech – contracted their technical staff to undertake distance educa-tion courses through O’Reilly Media Training; UG contracted UWI’s MITS staff to train the UGtechnical staff.

60 Strategic planning for UniQ was done by long distance because of the political situation in Haiti

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during the time frame within which the strategic planning was scheduled to take place.61 Currently referred to as “social bandwidth”.62 See the provision of affordable bandwidth pp. 46–47. The collapse of E-Link Americas was a blow,

not only to CUPIDE, but also to the planned operations of the Caribbean Knowledge and LearningNetwork (CKLN), which CARICOM saw supporting the ongoing development and provision of ICT-enabled distance education for tertiary institutions in the Caribbean.

63 Late in the project, UTech included the purchase of some binding equipment under its directUNESCO US$25,000 equipment purchase. UG simply struck off the printing and binding equip-ment and concentrated on the acquisition of ICTs in its equipment acquisition. Perhaps that deci-sion was coloured by the fact that the UG PAC representative was the university’s IT Manager.

64 All photocopiers were delivered and installed in the first quarter on 2008.65 R. Nicholas, “Report on the Distance Learning and Online Education Programmes and Human

Resource Development Requirements for Participating CUPIDE Institutions”, April 2004, unpub.p. 248. Italics added for emphasis.

66 It is important to remember that the Sylvester consultancy was undertaken in isolation from thepractical realities of the universities’ level of infrastructural and curriculum development, staffcapacities, and financial and technological capabilities.

67 Ibid., p. 285.68 Interview, January 9, 2008.69 op.cit., p. 249.70 Ibid., p. 254.71 Ibid., p. 264.72 In fact, the submission date for the report was postponed to facilitate Nicholas’ collection and

analysis of additional survey forms.73 Ibid., p. 307.74 The Nicholas Report is 393 pages in length.75 E-mail correspondence January 24, 2008.76 She pointed out that UWI already had UWIDEC; she was unsure what had been done at other insti-

tutions. However, UTech has the Office of Continuing Education Open and Distance Learning, andUG has the IDCE; therefore, if UWIDEC is considered comparable to the recommended projectteams, then only two universities, AdeKUS and UniQ, did not already have a responsible entity inplace to plan and develop distance education.

77 The UniQ Rector told the Consultant that teacher development by distance is a priority for UniQ,and that he is establishing a distance campus in Gonaïeve dedicated to training the 20,000 teachersneeded at present for the Haitian school system. Although the UniQ teacher training initiative wasnot spawned by CUPIDE, it certainly has been strengthened by UniQ’s participation in the project.

78 The Operations Manager suggested that the collaborative initiatives, although not accomplishedunder CUPIDE, could be pursued under the Caribbean Knowledge and Learning Network (CKLN).See 4.0 following. It is also worth noting that the UWI has approved the development of a VirtualCampus in 2007 and is in the process of establishing this entity under the leadership of UWIDEC in 2008. This single institution model appears not to be what Nicholas had in mind, however. He was recommending a collaboration among the universities closer in form to the COL VirtualUniversity of Small States of the Commonwealth (see www.col.org/vussc).

79 Held in Castries St. Lucia November 27–29, 2007.

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http://www.col.org/vussc

80 E-mail correspondence between the PAC Chair and the Consultant January 28, 2008. 81 “Revision of the Caribbean Universities Project for Integrated Distance Education (CUPIDE)”,

February 2005, pp. 4–7.82 Undertaken after the re-instatement of the project in 2005.83 The maintenance of the website was supported with counterpart funds. A member of the UWIDEC

technical staff was responsible for this task.84 This unsuccessful attempt to organise a regional consultation in 2004/05 was reported by the

Operations Manager in an interview with the Consultant, December 14, 2007. The consultationwas finally held in November, 2007 as the end of CUPIDE approached.

85 See www.ckln.org. 86 The CUPIDE PAC Minutes reveal that the CKLN management was invited to sit on the CUPIDE

PAC, but it did not respond. Eventually, CUPIDE gave up its invitation for CKLN’s representationon the PAC. Therefore, any assumptions about how CUPIDE and CKLN could collaborate wereone-sided: although the CUPIDE PAC saw ways in which CUPIDE and CKLN could work together,CKLN was not privy to discussions in PAC meetings.

87 An ICT regional strategic framework prepared by the CARICOM Secretariat on behalf of CARICOMGovernments for the deployment of ICT in support of Caribbean economic development.

88 CARICOM Heads endorsed the CKLN at their 15th Intercessional meeting held in St. Kitts andNevis, April 26 and 27, 2004, and established it as a not-for-profit organisation based in Grenadain October 2004.

89 “Revision of the Caribbean Universities Project for Integrated Distance Education (CUPIDE)” p. 8.90 Ibid., pp. 8–9.91 The actual date of re-starting the project, although documented as April 1, 2005, occurred with the

“. . . permission for expenditure and implementation to resume,” which was received fromUNESCO on April 21, 2005.

92 Rather than the two universities’ trying to develop the four units collaboratively.93 Interview with a member of the course development team, January 23, 2008.94 C. Marrett, “Evaluation of the CUPIDE pilot course development process,” pp. 4–5.95 Ibid., pp. 6–7.96 Ibid., p. 7.97 Ibid., p. 6.98 The list of equipment purchased for each of the participating universities using the UWI procure-

ment system appears in Appendix v1.99 Interview with a university PAC member, December 14, 2007.100 Interview, January 10, 2008.101 Please see also the US$20,000 direct contract for technical assistance also provided by UNESCO

directly to each co-beneficiary university under the project (p. 57).102 The UTech strategic planning consultancy for distance education did not result in a completed plan

because of decisions which needed to be taken by UTech’s senior administration. However theUTech PAC representative was certain that the strategic plan for DE would be completed in Janu-ary 2006 . The strategic plan for distance education was revisited and revised in mid-2007.

103 The Rector of UniQ told this Consultant that the existing strategic plan for distance developedthrough CUPIDE needed to be revisited, because the university had changed its direction in theimplementation of distance education recently. The Consultant sent this information to the CKLN,

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http://www.ckln.org

which had funds designated for strategic planning and e-learning workshop. It appears that UniQwould have been able to revisit its strategic plan through CKLN in the first quarter of 2008.

104 UWI has been specifically identified, because if the institution with the longest history in offeringdistance education demonstrates this approach in its strategic planning, it is probable that theother universities would do so as well.

105 J. Gedeon, CUPIDE Final Moodle Training Report”, Nov. 2006, p. 24.106 His assignment was expanded to include the building and training of staff in the use and mainte-

nance of the CUPIDE Web portal (www.cupide.org/moodle). 107 Eleven of the participants were academic members of staff from UniQ’s five faculties.108 A separate contract with a Moroccan consultant who speaks French as first language was developed

for UniQ in order to allow participants to undertake the Moodle training in their mother tongue.This accommodation of the Haitian participants was very useful, as it meant that any questions theparticipants had about the LMS did not have to be complicated by the challenge of trying to learnthe system in a foreign language.

109 Including all three UWI campuses.110 However, at AdeKUS, the Consultant arranged for two students who were travelling to Holland in

the summer of 2006 to make further connections for Moodle and on-line distance education train-ing while they were there. The results of that training were not available.

111 The Moodle Training Consultant for AdeKUS reported that 18 courses across several Faculties wereunder development and were projected to be offered on-line or with Moodle-based support materi-als in Academic Year 2006/07. However, the limited access to bandwidth appears to have damp-ened the developers’ enthusiasm somewhat. Only eight of these courses were actually offered inthat time period.

112 UWI has been excluded from this discussion because it has been developing and offering blendedand on-line courses for several years. The only difference for UWI was the switch to the MoodleLMS, already discussed.

113 The instructor said that this particular course had traditionally had a high failure rate.114 Focus group participant’s report, January 10, 2008.115 In his “Facilitator’s Report on Moodle Training,” unpub., Dr. John Gedeon refers to a single

adopter in a specific situation as “a lone ranger”.116 The two lecturers described the structure of their courses and presented their findings at the 2007

Caribbean Area Network for Quality Assurance in Tertiary Education (CANQATE) conference inOcho Rios, Jamaica.

117 Both of these offices operate under the Vice President Academic Affairs and Quality Assurance.They have the dedicated time to support the Faculties in their initiatives.

118 The IT Manager pointed out that he cannot leave the servers on “24/7” unless he has staff on handto ensure the safety of the equipment. His budget will not allow him to have staff available aroundthe clock, or even late in the evenings. This situation is one that may well affect other universitieswhen they begin to develop and offer on-line or blended courses: there must be IT staff available forthe safety of the equipment and to solve problems with the equipment as they arise. The universi-ties venturing into on-line and blended offerings will need to cost the staffing of the IT centre oper-ating outside of normal working hours – and possibly on a 24/7 basis - when developing distanceprogrammes that employ internet and web technologies.

119 The IT Manager, too, is frustrated by the situation. He feels that the lecturers do not appreciate the

NOTES

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http://www.cupide.org/moodle

fact that he is “. . . stealing the university’s bandwidth” to make sure they have available connectiv-ity.

120 The challenge of the availability of affordable bandwidth for CUPIDE universities is discussed onpp. 46–47.

121 Another concern, voiced to the Consultant by a Dean in one of the co-beneficiary universities, isthat the courses mounted on the CUPIDE Portal are placed there and offered under a Co-operativeCommons license, which does not allow the offering institution to receive payment for the use ofthe course. He pointed out that he is under an imperative from his President to earn money fromon-line courses; therefore, he cannot share courses being developed for the Moodle platform in hisSchools.

122 CKLN advertised for a web portal developer on its website in December 2007. However, the CKLNCEO reported to the Consultant on May 29, 2008 that CKLN had contacted CUPIDE managementto explore the potential of the CUPIDE portal to meet CKLN’s requirements in a portal.

123 See the description of the PAC on pp. 6–10 above.124 CUPIDE Report, “Final Report”, January 2008, p. 9.125 CUPIDE offered the five universities support for strategic planning, technical and human resource

needs assessments, equipment and training, and engendered a collaborative relationship betweenand among the participating universities. CKLN, although much larger and more expansive in itsfunctions, includes the offering of the same services to the tertiary sector in the entire English-speaking Caribbean, Haiti and Suriname.

126 Although it began as a project, very early in its existence CKLN was approved as a not-for-profitinstitution under CARICOM. At present the CARICOM Secretariat is in the process of establishingCKLN as an Agency of CARICOM, which demonstrates CARICOM’s perception of the importanceof developing ICTs for education in the region.

127 CUPIDE benefited from the fact that CKLN was assisting UG with the development of its strategicplan for ICTs and distance education at the time that the CUPIDE universities were undertakingstrategic planning for distance education. Therefore, CUPIDE did not have to develop a strategicplan with UG.

128 CKLN participated in – and, indeed, partially supported – the CARICOM Consultation on Collabo-ration in Distance Education among Caribbean TLIs in November 2007.

129 CKLN was established as a legal entity in October, 2004.130 Extracted from the revised CUPIDE project proposal, February 2005, p. 3.131 The cost in Suriname and Guyana is US$10,000 per month for 1MB of connectivity; in Belize it is

reported to be US$24,000 per month for 1 MB of connectivity.132 From the collapse of E-Link Americas in 2005 until mid-2007, CUPIDE was unclear about how it

would address this most important objective in the project. CKLN began looking for alternatives tothe satellite-based connectivity that had been promised by E-Link Americas.

133 While E-Link Americas was able to offer some bandwidth to northern Canada and Latin America, itfoundered when the promised funding by development agencies was late in arriving.

134 But not the bargain rate of US$400/1MB per month that was promised through E-Link Americas.135 The CKLN CEO informed the Consultant that in July 2007, the CARICOM HOG mandated that

C@RIBNET support functional co-operation for implementing the CSME, to bridge the digitaldivide and facilitate the implementation of a regional broadcast network.

136 Presentation by the CKLN CEO on C@RIBNET at the St. Lucia consultation, November 29, 2007.

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137 http://www.redclara.net/en/02.htm. Downloaded February 12, 2008.138 On May 29, 2008, the CKLN CEO told the Consultant that CKLN has signed a financing agreement

with the IDB for a grant to provide US$600,000 over three years to conduct a needs assessment,design an appropriate business model and project to develop an appropriate national network forCaribbean countries that will participate in C@RIBET. CKLN has also signed a 10 million€ EUgrant agreement to assist in developing the national networks to link with existing fibre optic cablenetworks, from which C@RIBNET will lease national linkages.

13 According to the CKLN CEO’s St. Lucia presentation, the national fibre optic backbone is to be sup-ported by the country involved.

140 Given that the CUPIDE universities (except for UTech) already have the infrastructure for satelliteconnectivity, and given that the first step in C@RIBNET is scheduled to take place over the nextthree years, satellite connectivity can fill the connectivity gap in these institutions until C@RIBNETbecomes a reality.

141 _____ “Final Report”, January 2006, p. 22.142 T he CUPIDE universities appreciated the Technical Officer’s support. During her interviews at the

co-beneficiary universities, the Consultant heard high praise for the advice and support he providedto them.

143 Technical Officer, in an interview with the Consultant, January 9 2008.144 The Consultant was provided with Income/Expenditure statements from April 1, 2004 to Decem-

ber 31, 2007. She did not receive copies of the statements for CUPIDE’s initial operations in 2003and early 2004.

145 Although the project officially ended December 31, 2007, procurement and installation of the Intel-sat equipment was still being done in the first quarter of 2008.

146 Now the Cluster Office for the Caribbean.147 A junior member of the UNESCO staff carried out the oversight of CUPIDE. 148 “CUPIDE Progress Report April-June 2005”, p. 13.149 The Gleaner newspaper on September 8 2007 reported that UNESCO released US$383,000 for

CUPIDE to UWI.150 The US$20,000 was disbursed to each university in two instalments: US$18,000 and a further

US$2,000 when the invoices for the services acquired with the funds were submitted. A secondUS$25,000 was disbursed under a direct contract with UNESCO: half of the money was disbursedon signing the contract, and the universities were expected to demonstrate that they had spent theentire sum, before UNESCO disbursed the balance of the funds.

151 As a regional university, UWI has a campus in three territories and centres in many others.152 And relief that they will be able to offer courses by distance, especially with the promise of receiving

free bandwidth for one year from UWI.153 Interview with PAC representative, January 14, 2008.154 Interview with PAC representative, December 14, 2007.155 Interview January 7, 2008.156 The CKLN has scheduled strategic planning in DE for Haiti in the first quarter of 2008. If this

training comes to fruition, it will meet the current Rector’s expressed need to “. . . update theStrategic Plan [for distance education]” because of major changes in the distance education land-scape in Haiti and UniQ’s changed DE ambitions.

157 E-mail correspondence, January 24, 2008.

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http://www.redclara.net/en/02.htm

158 The lists of equipment purchased centrally and through direct contract with UNESCO appears inAppendix v1.

159 Interview with Technical Officer, January 9, 2008.160 This change followed the recommendation of the IT Consultant’s report see pp. 17–20.161 The report is dated February 2003.162 “Inception Report,” p. 3.163 UTech purchased binding equipment as part of its US$25,000 equipment budget from UNESCO.

UG did not receive any binding equipment.164 Except those comparing the cost of distributed printing to the retention of centralised printing165 ____, CUPIDE “Final Report” p. 13.166 The only two persons in Haiti with Master’s degrees in Distance Education – one in IT and one in

Learning Resources.167 Interview, January 12, 2008.168 AdeKUS reported a total of 12 courses either fully developed or in the final stages of development

when the Consultant visited the university in January 2008.169 However, in responding to AdeKUS’s request for a Dutch-speaking consultant to offer the Moodle

training, CUPIDE offered an opportunity for more non-English-speaking staff to participate in thetraining.

170 Two hundred out of 700 classroom teachers are trained.171 Interview, January 14, 2008.172 In the focus group with the Consultant, several instructors complained that they had little access to

bandwidth when they needed it or could use it.173 However, as the UG PAC representative pointed out, UG cannot afford to purchase bandwidth

when it no longer is provided through CUPIDE.174 AdeKUS, UG and UniQ.175 According to the Rector of UniQ, there are 500,000 school age children out of school in Haiti. To

address this challenge Haiti needs 20,000 additional teachers trained at all levels of the system. 176 In fact, in its original design, the project was not as forward-thinking as it eventually became.

However, in heeding the recommendations of the first two consultancies executed under the proj-ect, CUPIDE redesigned sections of the project, allowing it to become a flagship for electronically-enhanced distance education that can inform the work of CKLN.

177 In the contract with UNESCO, UWI was to provide V-SAT equipment to UTech as a co-beneficiaryuniversity in CUPIDE. However, through some misunderstanding, UTech was omitted from the listof universities receiving the V-SAT capability. The rationale provided by the Project Director wasthat “. . . UTech’s connectivity charges were already lower than those of the other universities.”However, the omission of UTech from this feature of the equipment provision meant that it couldnot benefit, as the other co-beneficiary universities, from satellite capability or UWI’s provision of ayear’s connectivity at no cost. The UTech CUPIDE Liaison told the Consultant that the rationalewas that UTech had only one campus; however, when she disputed this observation (UTech has twocampuses and several franchise locations), and pointed out that UTech was supposed to receive thesame V-SAT equipment as a co-beneficiary university, she was told that it was too late; that all themoney in the project had already been spent.

178 UniQ also purchased equipment through its US$ 20,000 technical assistance contract withUNESCO.

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The Caribbean Universities’ Project for Integrated Distance Education (CUPIDE) was supported by Japanese Funds-in-Trust through UNESCO. Through CARICOM cooper-ation and management by the University of the West Indies Distance Education Centre(UWIDEC), the project enabled the collaboration of five Caribbean universities to develop and strengthen their distance education capabilities.

As universities in small island developing states (SIDS), the CUPIDE participants recog-nised that expanding access to their programmes demanded that they develop capabilityin a diversity of distance education modalities suitable to their clients and individual situations. This project encouraged them to develop collaborative partnerships with eachother while strengthening their Distance Education (DE) capabilities.

This evaluation examines the context and accomplishments of the five universities inplanning and implementing appropriate DE strategies and pioneering the use of on-linesoftware to reach their beneficiaries.

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COLLABORATIVE DISTANCE EDUCATION IN THE …unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002197/219711e.pdf · COLLABORATIVE DISTANCE EDUCATION IN THE CARIBBEAN Prepared by Dr Nancy George on behalf