Impact of AVU Multinational Projects I and II

1) INTRODUCTION

a) The AVU The African Virtual University (AVU) www.avu.org is a Pan African Intergovernmental Organization established by charter with the mandate of significantly increasing access to quality higher education and training through the innovative use of information communication technologies. A Charter, establishing the AVU as an Intergovernmental Organization, has been signed so far by eighteen (18) African Governments - , Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Cote d’Ivoire, , , Democratic Republic of Congo, Benin, , Republic of Guinea, , Niger, South , Sudan, , Guinea-Bissau and . The AVU has its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya and a Regional office in Dakar Senegal with Host-Country Agreements and Diplomatic Status with the two governments. From 2005 to 2011, services were delivered through the AVU Multinational Project I, funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and implemented in 10 Higher Education Institutions from 10 African countries. The UNDP funded 2 additional institutions in , making the total beneficiaries to 12 Higher Education institutions.

b) The AVU Multinational Project II The African Development Bank is funding a second phase of the Multinational Project to consolidate gains and spread the benefits of Phase I. To strengthen the capacity of the AVU and a network of 27 institutions to deliver and manage quality ICT integrated education and training opportunities in 21 African countries. The project has the following activities: (1) Establishment of new Open Distance and eLearning (ODeL) Centers and/or upgrading of exiting AVU Learning Centers as well as Internet connectivity provision at AVU Partner Institutions; (2) Development and/or improvement, and delivery of four ICT integrated Programs: AVU Open Distance and eLearning Professional Development Program (ODeLPD); Teacher Education Program (TEP), July 2017 1 Applied Computer Science Program (ACSP), and Peace Management and Conflict Resolution (PM&CR); (3) Gender Mainstreaming (4) Research and Development; (5) Promotion and development of Open Education Resources (OERs); and (6) Enhancement of AVU Capacity .

The AVU Multinational Project II is being implemented in 27 AVU Partner Institutions in the following 21 countries: nine (9) Francophone African Countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, , Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal; four (3) Lusophone African Countries: , Guinea Bissau and Mozambique; and nine (9) Anglophone African Countries: , Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, , , Sudan, and Tanzania.

This report consolidates the results from phase I and phase II to show the impact of the Multinational Support Project.

2) Summary of results from phase I and phase II of the Multinational Support Project This section summarizes the impacts of multi-national support project phase I and II. Despite the fact that implementation of phase II activities is not completed yet, some early outcomes are evident since they sought to consolidate the gains made in phase I.

The impact of the Multinational support project can be summarized as follows:

- Increased access to higher education through quality ICT assisted education and training in Africa. 32,704 learners were enrolled in various programs using ICT enhanced modules in targeted partner institutions surpassing the project target of 20,000 learners. Enrollment will continue after the end of the Project.

- A total of 35 Open Distance and eLearning (ODeL) centers have been fully implemented in 35 partner institutions across Africa, 10 were implemented in phase 1 and 24 in phase II of the project. An additional 3 ODeL centers will be implemented by the end of phase II bringing the total number to 38 centers. The centers are aimed at enabling the partner institutions to design, develop, deliver and manage their own open distance and eLearning programs.

- 440 ICT enhanced modules have been developed, 236 for teacher education, 153 for applied computer science, 39 for ODeL Professional Development programme, 12 for Peace Management and Conflict Resolution (PMCR). The modules have been used to deliver programmes at degree, diploma, certificate, and Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCS) in teacher education (TE), ODeL and Peace management and conflict resolution.

July 2017 2 For instance a total of 13,772 unqualified teachers were trained using the TE modules through a professional development programme in Senegal which led to their hiring by the government as full time qualified teachers.

- The Teacher Education modules have been published as Open Educational Resources (OERs) for easy access by learners and educators. So far the resources have been accessed over 2,694,241 million times worldwide from 201 countries since 2011.

- 840 Teacher Education Learning objects and 92 for Computer Sciences are published as OERs. A total of 1200 learning objects will be posted on the AVU OERs site by the end of 2017.

- All ICT integrated module newly developed during Phase II are published as OERs and will be posted on the AVU OER website by end of 2017.

- AVU collaborated with COL to develop and deliver a MOOC on teacher education

- 3 international conferences held resulting to several publications. 37 policy briefs produced and shared widely with higher education stakeholders in Africa including ministries of education and universities

- A total of 1589 scholarships awarded to encourage female and other disadvantaged learners to take up mathematics and science programmes

3) Detailed description of results

a) Enrollment through ICT assisted education A total of 32,704 learners have been enrolled in various programmes using ICT enhanced modules through the targeted partner institutions during the 2 phases of the multinational project. Details of the enrollments are shown in the table below.

Table 1: Numbers of learners enrolled using ICT enhanced modules disaggregated according to programme. Name of the programme Level Number of learners enrolled Teacher Education Programme (TEP) Degree 11,476 Teacher Education Programme (TEP) Diploma 273 Teacher Education Programme (TEP) Certificate 22 Teacher Education Programme (TEP) Professional 14,129 development Open Distance and eLearning Programme Professional 472

July 2017 3 development Exit training- Training of Authors Professional 459 development Short courses in ICT (ICT basic skills , ICT Professional 2262 integration in Education and Computer development Science) Peace Management and Conflict Resolution Massive Open Online 1,803 (PMCR) Course (MOOC) Common wealth of Learning (CoL) Massive Massive Open Online 1,701 Open Online Course (MOOC) Course (MOOC) Certificate in Renewable energy Certificate 107 Totals 32,704

b) Open Distance eLearning (ODeL) Centers A total of 35 ODeL Centers have been implemented during the 2 phases of the Project. 10 in phase I and 24 in phase II. The aim of the ODeL centers is to enable AVU partner institutions (PIs) to design, develop, deliver and manage their own Open Distance and eLearning (ODeL) programs. An additional 3 ODeL centers will be implemented before the end of phase II. The table provides details on the ODeL centers implemented. Table 2: Details of ODeL centers implemented and their status S/No. Name of Institution Country Phase Status 1 Universite Abdou Moumouni de II Niamer Niger Installed 2 Institut des Sciences de Ougadougou Burkina Faso II Installed 3 Insitut Superieur Pedagogique de la II Gombe DRC Installed 4 Ecole Normale Superieure de II Bamako Mali Installed 5 Universidade de Cabo Verde Cape Verde II Installed 6 Universidade Pedagogica Mozambique II Installed 7 University of The Gambia Gambia II Installed 8 University of Education Winneba Ghana II Installed 9 University of Port Harcourt Nigeria II Installed 10 Open University of Sudan Sudan II Installed 11 South Sudan II Installed 12 Escola Superior de Educacao - II Unidade Tchio Te Guinea Bissau Not Installed

July 2017 4 13 AVU Center Nairobi Kenya II Installed 14 AVU Center Dakar Senegal II installed

15 Kenya II Installed 16 University of Rwanda Rwanda II Installed 17 University of Dar es Salaam Tanzania II Installed 18 University of Addis Ababa Ethiopia II Installed 19 Université d'Abomey Calavi Bénin II Installed 20 Université de Ouagadougou Burkina Faso II Installed 21 Université Lumière de Bujumbura Burundi II Installed 22 Université de Douala Cameroon II Installed 23 Université des Sciences, des II Techniques et Technologies de Mali Bamako Installed 24 Université de Nouakchott Mauritania II Installed 25 Universite Gaston Berger Senegal II Installed 26 Ghana Institute of Management and II Installed Ghana Public Administration (GIMPA) 26 Kwame Nkrumah University of II Not Installed Ghana Science and Technology (KNUST) 28 Egerton University Kenya II Not Installed

29 Amoud University, Ethiopia Ethiopia I Installed 30 Kyambogo University, Uganda I Installed 31 Open University of Tanzania, I Tanzania Tanzania Installed 32 Puntland State University, Somalia Somalia I Installed 33 Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Senegal Senegal I Installed 34 University of , Zambia Zambia I Installed 35 , Kenya Kenya I Installed 36 Universite d’Abomey Calavi, Benin Benin I Installed 37 Universite de Bamako, Mali Mali I Installed 38 Universite Gaston Berger, Senegal Senegal I Installed

c) ICT enhanced modules i) Teacher Education Program (TEP)

July 2017 5 The Teacher Education Program focuses on the development of modules in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, ICTs basic Skills for teachers and Teacher Professional Development.

A total of 73 modules were developed, reviewed and translated to ensure availability in English, French and Portuguese resulting to 219 modules in the 3 languages. In order share and ensure easy accessibility of the modules to learners as well as educators across Africa and beyond, AVU published the modules as Open Educational Resources (OERs) through its OERs portal: www.oer.avu.org. In the last 6 years the modules have been accessed 2,694,241 million times.

This far, the TEP modules have been used to deliver degrees, diplomas, certificates and for professional development with a total of 27,492 learners enrolled in 10 partner institutions. In Senegal alone, a total of 13,772 unqualified teachers were trained using the TE modules through a professional development programme in Senegal which led to their hiring by the government as full time qualified teachers.

That said, the open educational resources require updating with new knowledge being infused, links and data updated and any confusions in presentation or errors in translations corrected. In phase II of the Project, the 219 modules developed in phase 1 are being reviewed and 8 new modules have been developed. After finalization of these modules, they will be delivered in 11 Partner Institutions and availed as Open Educational Resources.

The table below provides details on the TEP modules. Table 3: Summary of teacher education modules developed Subject area Number of modules ICT Skills 13 Biology 29 Chemistry 13 Mathematics 37 Physics 46 Education 72 Totals 236

ii) Applied Computer Science Program A total of 153 modules have been developed in applied computer against an overall objective of 156 modules by the end of phase II of the project.

These modules will be used to deliver degree, diploma and certificate programs in applied computer science across 18 partner institutions. The modules will also be availed as open educational resources.

July 2017 6 Table 4 : Summary of applied computer science modules developed

Subject area Number of modules 1 General Education 24 2 Programming I 24 3 Database systems 24 4 Programming II 24 5 Mathematics and interfaces 27 6 Architectures 24 7 Project and Internship 9 Totals 156

iii) Peace Management and Conflict Resolution Program AVU is committed to work with partners to advance peace building in Africa. Under the auspices of the AFDB funded Multinational support Project II, AVU launched a Peace Management and Conflict Resolution MOOC.

The Peace Management and Conflict Resolution (PM&CR) course is an interdisciplinary course whose aim is to introduce learners from a variety of backgrounds to the analysis of conflict, violence, and peace. The specific purpose of the course is to help learners identify and use tools that can guide them in working towards a more sustainable and durable peace by strengthening and solidifying the existing peace in their community.

The course consists of four modules and will be delivered in three languages: English, French, and Portuguese.

So far, AVU has enrolled 1,803 learners to the PMCR MOOC. 767 enrolled in the English MOOC, 837 in the French and 199 in the Portuguese.

This course will be adapted as a self-learning program and will be available free of charge. iv) Open Distance and eLearning Program The AVU Open Distance and eLearning Professional Development Program (ODeLPD) was first developed and delivered within the AVU Multinational Project I.

Then called the AVU Capacity Enhancement Program (ACEP), the program aimed at enabling AVU's African Partner Institutions (PIs) to collaboratively design, develop, deliver, and manage their own Open Distance and e-Learning programs and centers.

July 2017 7 During phase I, 39 modules were developed in English, French and Portuguese, a total of 133 staff from Partner Institutions enrolled. Some of the staff enrolled in this Program have been appointed as part of high management of Institutions.

In phase II of the multinational project the programme name was changed to Open Distance and eLearning Programme Development (ODeLPD) and 39 modules developed. A total of 102 faculty staff from the partner institutions were trained on this programme through a training workshop and 67 of them completed the programme online. The 102 trained staff members will now train other staff colleagues at their institutions as part of the cascade training intended to increase the critical mass of staff with ODeL skills. This program will also be adapted as 3 MOOCs and will be available to support the cascade training.

d) Scholarships Program A total of 1589 Scholarships were awarded to in service teachers for ICT Basic Skills and ICT Integration in Education, 601 in phase I and 988 in phase II. AVU has developed a short video with interviews from some of the students; this video is available on AVU YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Voak_GRw35M

The Phase II Scholarship Program is aimed at consolidating benefits of the PIs of the Multinational Support Project and to encourage women to take up Mathematics and Science programs.

Details of scholarships awarded are contained in the below.

Table 5: Details of scholarships awarded in 2005 and 2013 PI Phase Females Males Total 1 Amoud University, Ethiopia I 17 0 17 2 Kyambogo University, Uganda I 59 0 59 3 Open University of Tanzania, I 24 79 103 Tanzania 4 Puntland State University, Somalia I 30 0 30 5 Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Senegal I 42 132 174 6 , Zambia I 30 0 30 7 University of Nairobi, Kenya I 66 25 91 8 Universite d’Abomey Calavi, Benin I 0 9 9 9 Universite de Bamako, Mali I 1 13 14 10 Universite Gaston Berger, Senegal I 10 22 32 11 Universidade Pedagogica, I 16 0 16 Mozambique 12 University of , Zimbabwe I 22 0 22 13 University of Nairobi, Kenya II 34 23 57 14 University of Zambia II 59 1 60 15 Open University of Tanzania, II 32 106 138

July 2017 8 Tanzania 16 Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Senegal II 18 12 30 Grand Total 460 422 882

Table 6 : Details of scholarships awarded in 2017

Number of students AVU Teacher Education Program 2017 Total number of

Partner Institution students 1 University of Juba , South sudan 30 2 University of The Gambia , Gambia 56 3 University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria 30 4 Open University of Sudan , Sudan 34 5 Institut des Sciences de Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso 30 6 Ecole Normale Superieure , Mali 30 7 Universite Abdou Moumouni , Niger 29 8 Institut Superieur Pedagogique de la Gombe , RDC 30 9 Universidade de Cabo Verde , Cabo Verde 30 10 Escola Normal Superior Tchico Te, Guine Bissau 30 Total number of students 329

Number of students AVU Applied Computer Science Certificate Program 2017 Partner Institution Total number of students 1 Egerton university (EU), Kenya 20 2 Kenyatta University (KU), Kenya 20 3 University of The Gambia (UTG), Gambia 20 4 University of Dar-es-Salaam (UDSM), Tanzania 55 5 University of Rwanda (UR), Rwanda 20 6 Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Ghana 20 7 Université de Ougagadougou (UO1), Burkina Faso 25 8 Université Lumiere de Bujumbura (ULBU), Burundi 25 9 Université de Douala (UDo), Cameroun 25 10 Université de Nouakchott Al Aasriya (UNA), Mauritania 25 11 Université Abdou Moumouni de Niamey (UAM), Niger 20 12 Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (UCAD), Senegal 20 13 Université d'Abomey Calavi (UAC), Benin 25 14 Université des Sciences,des Techniques et des Technologies de Bamako, Mali 20 Total number of students 340

July 2017 9

e) Research and development 3 international conferences held resulting to several publications. So far 37 policy briefs have been produced and shared widely with higher education stakeholders in Africa including ministries of education and universities. AVU is in the process of producing an additional 29 policy briefs before the end of the phase II of the multinational project.

The briefs are intended to convince the target audience of the urgency of the current problem and the need to adopt the preferred alternative or course of action outlined and therefore, serve as an impetus for action; support broader advocacy initiatives targeting a wide but knowledgeable audience; and respond to a request directly from within an organization that intends to advocate for the position detailed in the brief in ODeL.

AVU is in the process of publishing the first issue of the a peer review journal called (include website)

f) Quality Assurance Framework During phase I of the Multinational Project AVU developed a Quality Assurance for its Teacher Education Program.

With the development of the Applied Computer Science Program in the phase II and also the possibility of the development of other courses at AVU, it has become necessary to have a Quality Assurance Framework for ODeL that could be used for all projects related and AVU Programs.

In order to achieve this activity the AVU Quality Assurance Framework for ODeL was reviewed based on the existing Quality Assurance Framework for the Teacher Education Program in order to have a Framework that would be used for all AVU Programs.

The 27 Partner Institutions involved in phase II of the Multinational Project have endorsed AVU Quality Assurance Framework for ODeL.

4) Project’s contacts in Kenya Phase I University of Nairobi: Principal: Prof Isaac Jumba Principal Center for Education and External studies University of Nairobi Tel: +254 20 2010411

July 2017 10 Email: [email protected]

AVU Focal Point: Prof. Harriet J. Kidombo School of Continuing and Distance Education University of Nairobi Mobile: +254-0722-734058 Email: [email protected]

Phase II Kenyatta University: Deputy Vice Chancellor Prof John Okumu Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic Kenyatta University Tel: +254 20 8710901 – 19 Email: [email protected] AVU Focal Point ODeL Center Director and Dr Adino Onyango Dean Digital School Kenyatta University Tel: +254727454510 Email: [email protected]

ODeLPD Participants

Management Dr. George Onyango [email protected]

Dr. Samuel Mutweleli [email protected].

Technology Dr. David Nzuki [email protected]

Dr. Rose Njoroge [email protected]

Instructional Design Dr. Rhoda Gitonga [email protected]

Dr. Thadeus Rugar [email protected]

Egerton University – Vice Chancellor Prof Rose Mwonya Vice Chancellor Egerton University Cell: +254722106572 Email:[email protected]

AVU Focal Point: Julius Kipkemboi PhD Egerton University, Dean, Faculty of Science P.O Box 536-20115,

July 2017 11 Egerton Tel: +254722443717 www.egerton.ac.ke ODeLPD Participants

Management Dr Phoebe Ongalo [email protected]

Prof. Julius Kipkemboi [email protected] Technology Mr. Justin Omwoyo [email protected]

Mr. Jackson G. Kabira [email protected]; [email protected]

Instructional Design Noela Kipyegen [email protected]

Prof. Fred Keraro [email protected]

July 2017 12