African Virtual University makes an actual impact

The African Virtual University, or AVU, is a pan-African intergovernmental organisation operating in 27 countries. “We work with more than 50 universities across Africa,” says Rector Dr Bakary Diallo of the institution with a vision to be the continent’s leading open, distance and e-learning network.

The AVU works to facilitate the use of effective open, distance and e-learning in tertiary institutions throughout Africa, according to Diallo, who has led the institution for the past five years.

“We have capacity-building activities that are geared to support universities and countries to increase access to quality higher education through e-learning. Some of our capacity-building programmes have been supported by organisations such as the African Development Bank,” he told University World News.

“We also provide educational services including courses, programmes and consultancies on e-learning solutions."

The virtual university has a board of directors who are elected vice-chancellors from the five regions across Africa. Its agenda is driven by the needs of universities, said Diallo: “The AVU, through partner institutions, has trained more than 43,000 students since its establishment in 1997.”

Some achievements

In a relatively short time, the virtual university has grown and has vigorously promoted e-learning programmes across Africa.

“With support from the African Development Bank, for instance, the AVU established 10 e-learning centres, one in each of 10 beneficiary countries, between 2007 and 2009,” Diallo said.

“The centres act as physical hubs for the creation, organisation and sharing of knowledge and the development of local, distance and e-learning programmes. We are in the process of establishing 12 new e-learning centres and upgrading 15 e-learning centres in selected institutions of higher learning in 27 African countries.”

By working in three languages that are widely spoken across Africa – English, French and Portuguese – the AVU has enabled collaboration among African academics beyond language and cultural barriers.

Under its Capacity Enhancement Programme, the university has trained 459 academics in developing, managing and implementing their own e-learning programmes. The capacity training has enabled academics to transition to working in e-learning environments in their institutions, especially in science and technology.

“The AVU has also established a Virtual Campus for Development and Peace as an online learning environment designed to advance economic development and peace-building in Africa by increasing human capital in the formal and informal sectors, especially among disadvantaged groups such as school dropouts, women, and learners in conflict and post-conflict countries such as Somalia and Madagascar,” said Diallo.

“Sciences disciplines are traditionally male dominated. The AVU is working to reduce this gender disparity by awarding scholarships to female students under our Science Teacher Education programme.”

In January 2011, the university launched an open educational resources online interactive portal called OER@AVU.

The portal currently hosts 219 modules – 73 modules in each of the three languages, including 46 in mathematics and sciences, four in ICT basic skills, 19 teacher education professional courses, and four in integration of ICTs in education.

“The courses are freely accessible as open online resources. The uniqueness of this portal is that it has attracted visitors from around the world,” Diallo explained. Between January 2011 and June 2012, the portal attracted more than a million users from 193 countries.

“This means that through the AVU, Africa is contributing to global knowledge and is therefore not only a consumer of content from the ‘North’.”

Last month OER@AVU was voted the ‘most progressive’ resource in the US-based Education-Portal.com People's Choice Awards. This was the second time AVU open courses have won global recognition. In 2011, the Education-Portal.com recognised the AVU open educational resources as Best Emerging OCW Initiative.

Partnering with the African Development Bank

The African Virtual University launched a partnership with the African Development Bank (AfDB) in 2005.

The Multinational Project was set up to strengthen the capacity of the AVU and its network of institutions to deliver and manage quality ICT-assisted education and training programmes in 10 African countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Senegal, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

In 2012, the university received a US$15.6 million grant from the AfDB to implement the second phase of the Multinational Project, which has the overall objective of strengthening the capacity of the AVU and a network of 27 institutions to develop, deliver and manage quality ICT-integrated programmes in 21 African countries.

The 21 countries benefiting from the second phase include nine Francophone African nations – Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal.

There are also three Lusophone countries involved – Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau and Mozambique – and nine Anglophone nations: Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan and Tanzania.

Going forward

Diallo called on African governments and the private sector to “embrace e-learning as an alternative to the traditional classroom-based learning.

"Using ICTs in education allows institutions to save on items such as physical infrastructure, textbooks and number of teachers per classroom while contributing to quality of education.

“This will increase enrolment in institutions of higher learning and enable African governments to reach educational goals as spelled out in the Millennium Development Goals and the Education for All initiative,” he told University World News.

“Besides, e-learning offers flexible education by accommodating the needs of the learners, including those in employment wishing to upgrade their skills, thus encouraging students to become lifelong learners.”