Incubating Online Course Design and Development

at African Universities

Brenda Mallinson and Greig Krull

8 August 2013eLearning Update Conference

Project Background

Capacity Building Approach

Successes and Challenges

Outcomes

Reflection and Discussion

PHEA ETIProject Background

Vision is “to support interventions in universities to make increasingly effective use of educational technology to address some of the underlying educational challenges facing the higher

educational sector in Africa”

One of the Specific PHEA ETI objectives:• Build academic capacity in quality online course design and

delivery through use of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) (for mounting over 140 online / blended courses)

7 participating sub-Saharan Africa HEIs

Catholic University of Mozambique (Beira)

University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania)

Kenyatta University (Kenya)

University of Jos (Nigeria)

University of Education Winneba (Ghana)

University of Ibadan (Nigeria)

Makerere University (Uganda)

26 sub-projects10 involving online /blended courses

Catholic University of Mozambique (Beira)

University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania)

Kenyatta University (Kenya)

University of Jos (Nigeria)

University of Education Winneba (Ghana)

University of Ibadan (Nigeria)

Makerere University (Uganda)

Context & Motivation• The first experience of engaging with online learning for

majority of academics

• Phase B (Implementation) planned for:– Initial Sensitisation – Series of Capacity Building Workshops (over 3 years)

• Interspersed with– Support for Design & Development of own online course– Quality Improvement Review process

• Customised for each participating HEI– Environmental Context– Specific Project Purpose

Capacity Building ProgrammeSensitisation

Design & Dev of Effective Online

Courses

Supporting Course Dev & Internal

Reviewing

Multimedia Design & Dev

VLE (Moodle) in DepthQuality

Improvement of Online Courses

Quality Improvement of Multimedia

External Review & Feedback

OER Deployment

Supporting Online Learning

(Online Facilitation)

External Team

Support

Internal Team Support

Peer Support

Sensitisation – Changing the Mindset

• What is possible using supporting Edu ICTs?• What are the characteristics of online vs

traditional classroom teaching and learning?– Collaboration, interaction, resources– Changed roles of academic and student

• The importance of Learning Design• Engaging with supporting ICTs

Flexible Capacity Building Approach

Facilitated /supported by external project support team– Academics identify courses for online/blended design– Skills dev / deepen understanding via regular workshops– Customised as required for project purpose– Quality Improvement– Internal and External Review

Facilitated / supported by internal project support team– Continue to work on courses between workshops– Practical implementation - phased, mentored– Respond to feedback from QI reviews

Successes ExperiencedCourse Developers Internal Project /Unit

• High degree of enthusiasm• Keen to develop new skills• Shared achievements• Opportunity to interact and

collaborate across disciplines• Peer review a positive

experience• Increasing confidence in the

discourse, concepts, and practices of using educational technology

• Re-examined own pedagogical practices

• Appreciated external review opportunity

• Smooth running of the on-site capacity development workshops

• Local support personnel mostly present and active at the workshops

• Good leadership and commitment by local project leaders led to sustained motivation

• Some centralised eLearning support units were enhanced by the HEI

• Increased capacity for Multimedia support• Increased capacity in supporting use of

the VLE (Moodle)• Growth in deployment of online courses• Increased training for academics and

students wrt online teaching & learning• Increased collaboration with departments

Challenges ExperiencedCourse Developers Internal project /unit

• Unreliable internet access and limited bandwidth (initially)

• Unreliable local power supply• Quality of courses was

variable – many low-end• Multimedia development

more difficult than expected• Academics overextended

time-wise• On-site workshops meant

that regular work interruptions could take place

• Support staff changes led to loss of skills and experience

• Some project leaders left the institution, gap to be filled

• Support staff overextended due to increased Ed Tech activity and support required

• Quality Improvement process required considerable coordination

• Sustained effort over 4-5 years required in addition to regular duties

Outcomes

• Raised awareness of the potential and practice of delivering online courses

• Increased focus on what enhancement is necessary wrt policies, strategies, systems and support for academic staff

Institutional

• Proportion of courses or parts thereof (learning objects) to be made available as Open Educational Resources (OER) to be shared with other institutions

• Capacity Building workshops to become available as OERs from Saide website for any course developers or support teams to use or adapt (by end 2013)

Project

Lessons Learned

• Conducive institutional environment (Apex support)• Establish pedagogical practice of academics up front• Importance of internal centralized support units• Off-campus venues preferable for workshops• Prepare off-line solutions (e.g. Poodle)

Project Support Team (Saide)

•Using supporting ICTS requires a high level of perseverance•Multimedia development requires considerable expertise•Takes time (iterations) to design, develop and pilot an online course•A blended delivery approach can add value to an on-campus environment

Course Developers (Academics)

Reflection• What is the potential impact of online / blended

course delivery on the stakeholders?• Institution• Academics• Students• Support Staff

• How can you develop or enhance capacity building processes at your institution?

• Who should be involved and at what stage?• Role separation a consideration

Thank You

Brenda Mallinson and Greig Krull brendam@saide.org.za / greigk@saide.org.za

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.