The African Virtual University

1. The African Virtual University Working with 27 countries, across boundaries and language barriers in Anglophone Francophone and Lusophone Africa. MIT LINC 2007 Conference Dr Bakary Diallo Rector The African Virtual University bdiallo@avu.org

2. Plan • Presentation of the AVU • OERs@AVU • OER Achievements at the AVU • The AVU MIT-OCW Project • The AVU OER Strategy • The Teacher Education Program • TESSA • Other OER Initiatives • OER Challenges • Looking into the future: developing and disseminating OERs in Africa

3. The AVU : Brief Story • AVU initially launched in 1997 as a World Bank project to deliver education content from the West to the African continent • AVU has received considerable donor funding from the World Bank, CIDA, Ausaid, DfID,AfDB, and others. • AVU has gone through four different phases. • Focus is now on organizational sustainability

4. The AVU: GreatestAssets • The ability to work across borders and languages in Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophone Africa • Fostering regional integration and mobility of education professionals in Subsaharan Africa • The largest network of Open Distance and e-Learning institutions in Africa • Established in more than 27 countries with 53 partner Institutions

5. The AVU: Presence in Africa

6. The AVU: Mission • To facilitate the use of effective Open Distance and eLearning (ODeL) Methodologies in African Tertiary Education Institutions.

7. The AVU: Vision • The leading Pan-African Open, Distance and e-Learning network

8. The AVU: Expertise • Building and managing large consortia of African Educational Institutions • Designing and implementing Multinational education Projects • Developing African-based educational content • Enhancing capacity in African tertiary education institutions (ODeL centers, training, consultancies) • Developing and implementing Open Education Resources (OER) strategy

9. The AVU Expertise (Continued) • Delivery of ODeL programs: • Degree and Diploma Programs • short professional courses in Computer Science, Languages & Journalism • Digital Library • Past Achievements • Brokering, purchasing and distributing of bandwidth in bulk for cost effectiveness. • Coordinate the development of a portal for Teacher Education in Sub Saharan Africa (TESSA)

10. The AVU Expertise (Continued) • Quality Assurance Mechanism • Education Policies • IT Policies

11. The AVU Learning Architecture

12. OER@AVU : The AVU and MIT-OCW Project • In 2005, the AVU in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW) undertook a project that sought to promote the usage of OCW material in African institutions of higher learning.

13. OER@AVU : The AVU and MIT-OCW Project • Main Project Objectives • Raise awareness of MIT OCW; • Facilitate the usage of MIT OCW; • Initiate the process of creating African based communities of practice for Open Distance and e-Learning (ODeL). • Provide research feedback data on the access and use of the OpenCourseWare in the context of an African institution.

14. OER@AVU : The AVU and MIT OCW Project • Two institutions selected to participate in the Pilot phase from June - Aug 2005 • University of Nairobi (Kenya) • University of Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) • Activities carried out: • Setting up Mirror Sites • Sensitization Workshops • Awareness Campaigns • Learning Support Materials

15. OER@AVU : The AVU - MIT OCW • Project’s Current Status • University of Nairobi • students and academic staff still access materials for learning and teaching. • Institution has no server to track usage and monitor access of the OCW content. • Addis Ababa University • students and academic staff still access materials for learning and teaching • Although the Institution has a server, tracking of usage and monitoring of access is not done.

16. OER@AVU : The AVU - MIT OCW • Lessons Learnt • Most of the objectives set out were successfully achieved • Due to a temporary logistical hitch, the process of creating African based Communities of Practice for ODeL in collaboration with MIT OCW did not kick off. • The provision of support materials, i.e., textbooks, expected from MIT was not carried out • No further installation of the mirror sites at any other University in Africa.

17. OER@AVU : The AVU OER Strategy Method • The AVU configured a conceptual framework and architecture – the “AVU OER Architecture”to support: • Creation, organization, dissemination and utilization of OERs • the development of a dynamic, rational and comprehensive strategy for collaborative partnerships for African higher education and training institutions.

18. OER@AVU : The AVU OER Architecture

19. OER@AVU : The AVU OER Strategy • Objectives • Facilitate increased participation in the creation, organization, dissemination and utilization of OERs • Address issues pertaining to epistemological, ideological, cultural and social relevance for the African context • Reduce technological challenges • Enable institutions to participate actively so that they drive and own the process in terms of form content, structure and orientation

20. OER@AVU : The AVU OER Strategy • Achievements • The AVU OER Seminar • UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning OER Forum • The AVU Vice Chancellors’ Conference in November 2006 in Nairobi Kenya • Representation of more than 20 countries • Sensitization campaign

21. OER@AVU : The AVU Teacher Education Program • The AVU Multinational Support Project, funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). • Objective to: • Strengthen the capacity of the AVU and a network of institutions coordinated by the AVU • Deliver and manage quality ICT assisted education and training opportunities in 10 selected African countries

22. OER@AVU : The AVU Teacher Education Program • Countries: • Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Senegal, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia , Zimbabwe

23. OER@AVU : The AVU Teacher Education Program • Benefits to beneficiary countries: • improve the quality of teaching and learning in Maths and sciences through the use of ICTs;   • increase the number of teachers for Mathematics, Sciences, and Basic Computer Science • develop and promote research in teacher education • Promote regional integration and strengthen relevant partnerships with other teacher education initiatives in Africa and globally.

24. OER@AVU : The AVU Teacher Education Program • impact: • Enrolment of 9,600 teacher trainees in the first year of implementation in ten countries. • 72 university staff trained in module authoring for ODeL programs;12 staff in program implementation, management, evaluation and reporting. • Development of policy guidelines and curriculum conceptualization of the program

25. OER@AVU : The AVU Teacher Education Program • Achievements • Development of learning materials by re-authoring/updating existing content of participating universities into Open Distance and e-learning formats in 3 phases: • Phase 1: 29 Phase I modules were completed in September 2007, • Phase 2: 25 modules are at an advanced • Phase 3: Phase III modules are scheduled to start in November 2007

26. OER@AVU : The AVU Teacher Education Program • Design, development and adoption of a Quality Assurance Framework • Establishment of a consortium working structure that cuts across languages in the participating universities • Establishment of 74 subject matter teams and peer reviewers for mathematics, ICT, biology, physics, chemistry and education professional courses • Training of subject matter experts;

27. OER@AVU : The AVU Teacher Education Program • TE Link with OERs • Establishment of a community of practice in Teacher Education working virtually from different countries • Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), made use of OER during the authoring process • All authors signed off on the creative commons agreement; • The future of TE materials as OERs under discussion with participating universities • The AVU is managing the IPR on behalf of the participating universities

28. OER@AVU : Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa • TESSA Objectives: • Create a bank of open content multimedia resources in Online and traditional text format to support school based education and teacher training • Develop Open content support resources for teachers and trainers • Extend and widen the take-up and use of the TESSA Resources and ideas across Sub-Saharan Africa • Implement research activities to promote the improvement of teacher education in Sub-Saharan Africa

29. OER@AVU : Teacher Education in Subsaharan Africa • TESSA Link to OERs • An OER related project whose key outputs are the development of teaching and teacher education materials to be versioned and re-used across Africa • All Materials on the TESSA portal will be IPR cleared and freely available for use online as OERs

30. OER@AVU : Other AVU OER Initiatives • Curtin University Business Studies Program • Curtin University released their intellectual Property Rights (IPR) to the AVU to use the Business Studies Diploma and Degree program materials for educational purposes. • Université de Laval program: • The AVU was given the IPR to use the Université de Laval Computer science program in Francophone Africa.

31. OER@ AVU: Challenges • OER Sensitization: • Being a relatively new concept, sensitization campaigns should be conducted for the movement to gain momentum. • Technological Infrastructure: • availability of infrastructure is still a big challenge. • Usage of OERs requires access to computers and connectivity • Marine Fibre Optic cable around the African continent expected to provide affordable connectivity and bandwidth.

32. OER@ AVU: Challenges (Continued) • Funding OER@AVU • Initial funding from Hewlett Foundation. Require additional funding for continuity. • Policies and Licensing of OERs • Institutional governing bodies to articulate a governance structure for OERs. • Quality Assurance of OERs • Adopt stringent peer review process to ensure quality of OERs

33. Looking into the future of OER@AVU • Continue implementing the OER@AVU initiatives • Secure funding for OER • Strengthen and build strategic partnerships with international and African based OER initiatives • MIT- further collaboration with the MIT and continue providing access to open content for Higher Education in institutions across Africa

34. Looking into the future of OER@AVU • COL – Continue working together • South African Institute of Distance Learning (SAIDE) our partner in the AVU OER strategy • Merlot: Creation of the Merlot African Network • UNESCO: Participate in OER awareness raising network

35. Thank you